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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



HISTORY 



OF 



CALIFORNIA 



BY 



HELEN ELLIOTT BANDINI 



ILLUSTRATED BY 

ROY J. WARREN 




NEW YORK •:. CINCINNATI •:. CHICAGO 

AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY 



'ujei«.*.SY of OONi^RESS? 
two Copies rtixv-ivii*. 

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Copyright, 1908, by 
HELEN ELLIOTT BANDINL 

Entered at Stationers' Hall, London. 



B. CAL. 
W. P. I 



PREFACE 

This book is an attempt to present the history of 
CaUfornia in so simple and interesting a way that chil- 
dren may read it with pleasure. It does not confine 
itself to the history of one section or period, but tells 
the story of all the principal events from the Indian 
occupancy through the Spanish and Mission days, the 
excitement of the gold discovery, the birth of the state, 
down to the latest events of yesterday and to-day. 
Several chapters, also, are devoted to the development 
of Cahfornia's great industries. The work is designed 
not only for children, but also for older people inter- 
ested in the story of California, including the tourists 
who visit the state by the thousand every year. 

For her information the writer has depended almost 
entirely upon source material, seldom making use of a 
secondary work. Her connection with the old Spanish 
families has opened to her unusual advantages for the 
study of old manuscripts and for the gathering of recol- 
lections of historical events which she has taken from 
the lips of aged Spanish residents, always verifying a 
statement before using it. She has, also, from long 
familiarity with the Spanish-speaking people, been able 
to interpret truly the life of the Spanish and Mission 
period. 

The illustrator of the history, Mr. Roy J. Warren, 
has made a careful study of the manuscript, chapter by 

5 



6 PREFACE 

chapter. He has also been a faithful student of Cali- 
fornia and her conditions ; his illustrations are, there- 
fore, in perfect touch with the text and are as true to 
facts as the history itself. 

The thanks of the author are due not only to a host 
of writers from whom she has gained valuable assist- 
ance, and some of whose names are among those in the 
references at the end of the book, but to others to whom 
further acknowledgment is due. First of these is 
Professor H. Morse Stephens, whose suggestions from 
the inception of the work until its completion have been 
of incalculable advantage, and whose generous offer to 
read the proof sheets crowns long months of friendly 
interest. Secondly, the author is indebted to the faith- 
ful and constant supervision of her sister, Miss Agnes 
Elliott of the Los Angeles State Normal School, with- 
out whose wide experience as a teacher of history and 
economics the work could never have reached its pres- 
ent plane. The author also offers her thanks to 
Mr. Charles F. Lummis, to whom not only she but all 
students of California history must ever be indebted; 
to Mrs. Mary M. Coman, Miss Isabel Frazee, to the 
ofificers of the various state departments, especially 
Mr. Lewis E. Aubrey, State Mineralogist, and Mr. 
Thomas J. Kirk and his assistant Mr. Job Wood of the 
educational department ; to Miss Nellie Rust, Librarian 
of the Pasadena City Library, and her corps of accom- 
modating and intelligent assistants, and to the librarians 
of the Los Angeles City Library and State Normal 
School. 

The passages from the Century Magazine quoted in 



PREFACE 7 

Chapters V-IX are inserted by express permission of 
the publishers, the Century Company. Acknowledg- 
ment is due, also, to the publishers of the Overland 
MontJily for courtesy in permitting the use of copyright 
material ; and to D. Appleton & Co. for permission to 
insert selections from Sherman's Memoirs, 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER 

I. The Land and the Name . 

11. The Story of the Indians . 

III. "The Secret of the Strait'' . 

IV. The Cross of Santa Fe 
V. Pastoral Days . . 

VI. The Footsteps of the Stranger 

VII. At the Touch of King Midas . 

VIII. The Great Stampede . 

IX. The Birth of the Golden Baby 

X. The Signal Gun and the Steel Trail 

XI. That which followed a^ter 

XII. "The Groves were God'$ First Temples 

XIII. To All that sow the Time of Harvest should 

be given 

XIV. The Golden Apples of the Hesperides 
XV. California's Other Contributions to the 

World's Bill of Fare .... 
XVI. The Hidden Treasures of Mother Earth 
XVII. From la Escuela of Spanish California to 

THE Schools of the Twentieth Century 
XVIII. Statistics « . 



Bibliography 
Index . 



HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA 



CHAPTER I 



THE LAND AND THE NAME 




NCE upon a time, about four hundred 
years ago, there was published in old 
Spain a novel which soon became 
unusually popular. The successful 
story of those da3^s was one which 
caught the fancy of the men, was read by them, dis- 
cussed at their gatherings, and often carried with them 
when they went to the wars or in search of adventures. 
This particular story would not interest readers of to-day 
save for this passage: ** Know that on the right hand 
of the Indies there is an island called California, very 
near the Terrestrial Paradise, and it 
is peopled by black women who live "^-^^ Jfi 

after the fashion of Amazons. This island ^^^^i-' 
is the strongest in the world, with its steep rocks, and 
great cliffs, and there is no metal in the island but gold." 
There is no doubt that some bold explorer, crossing 
over from Spain to Mexico and enlisting under the 




U^ 



y 




12 THE LAND AND THE NAME 

leadership of the gallant Cortez, sailed the unknown 
South Sea (the Pacific) and gave to the new land dis- 
covered by one of Cortez's pilots the name of the golden 
island in this favorite story. 

This land, thought to be an island, is now known to us 

as the peninsula of Lower California. The name first 

appeared in 1 542 on the map of Domingo Castillo, and 

f^^ was soon applied to all the land claimed by Spain from 

.^. Cape San Lucas up the coast as far north as 44°, which 

"^" was probably a little higher than any Spanish explorer 

had ever sailed. 

" Sir Francis Drake," says the old chronicle, ** was the 
first Englishman to sail on the back side of America," 
and from that time until now California has been con- 
sidered the back door of the country. This was natural 
because the first settlements in the United States were 
along the Atlantic seacoast. The people who came 
from England kept their faces turned eastward, looking 
to the Mother Country for help, and watching Europe, 
and later England herself, as a quarter from which 
danger might come, as indeed it did in the war of the 
Revolution and that of 18 12. 

During the last few years, however, various events 
have happened to change this attitude. Through its suc- 
cess in the late Spanish war the United States gained 
confidence in its own powers, while the people of the 
old world began to realize that the voung republic of 
the western hemisphere, since it did not hesitate to 
make war in the interests of humanity, would not be 
apt to allow its own rights to be imposed upon. The 
coming of the PhiUppine and Hawaiian Islands under 



CALIFORNIA 13 

the protection of the United States, the Russo-Japanese 
war, which opened the eyes of the world to the strength 
of Japan and the wisdom of securing its trade, and the 
action of the United States in undertaking the building 
of the Panama Canal, are indications that the Pacific 
will in the future support a commerce the greatness of 
which we of to-day cannot estimate. With danger from 
European interference no longer pressing closely upon 
the nation, President Roosevelt in 1907 took a decided 
step in recognizing the importance of the Pacific when 
he sent to that coast so large a number of the most 
modern vessels of the navy. In fact, the nation may 
now be said to have faced about, Cahfornia becoming 
the front door of our country. 

It is well, then, to ask ourselves what we know about 
the state which is to form part of the reception room of 
one of the leading nations of the world. 

It is a long strip of territory, bounded on one side by 
the ocean so well named Pacific, which gives freshness 
and moisture to the ever-blowing westerly winds, l ,^, 
On the other side is a mountain range, one ^^^^^^ jj 
thousand miles long, with many of its peaks f^r'^^ 
covered with perpetual snow, holding in its r 
lofty arms hundreds of ice-cold lakes, its sides tim- 
bered with the most wonderful forests of the world. 

Few regions of the same size have so great a 
range of altitude as California, some portions of its 
desert lands being below sea level, while several of its 
mountains are over ten thousand feet in height. In 
its climate, too, there are wide differences as regards 
heat and cold, although its coast lands, whether north or 




14 



THE LAND AND THE NAME 



IPS 

km 



south, are much more temperate than the corresponding 
latitudes on the Atlantic coast. The difference in the 
climate of the northern and southern portions of the 
state is more marked in the matter of moisture. Most of 
the storms of California have their beginning out in the 
North Pacific Ocean. They travel in a southeasterly- 
direction, striking the coast far to the north in summer, 
but in winter extending hundreds of miles farther south. 
During November, December, January, and February 
they often reach as far south as the Mexi- 
^'^- ■ , can line. Then, only, does southern Cali- 

fornia have rain. The water necessary for 
use in the summer time is gained by irriga- 
tion from the mountain streams, which are 
\ supplied largely from the melting snows 
the Sierras. 

The home lands of the state may be 
divided into two portions : the beautiful 
border country rising from the Pacific in 
' alternate valleys and low rolling foothills to 
the edge of the Coast Range ; and the great 
central valley or basin, which lies like a vast 
^y pocket almost entirely encircled by mountains — 
^^ the high Sierras on the east, on the west the low 
Coast Range. Two large rivers with their tributaries 
drain this valley : the San Joaquin, flowing from the 
south ; and the Sacramento, flowing from the north. 
Joining near the center of the state, they cut their way 
through the narrow passage, the Strait of Carquinez, and 
casting their waters into the beautiful Bay of San Fran- 
cisco, finally reach the ocean through the Golden Gate. 





RI-.LIHr MAP OF 

CALIFORNIA 



scALe OF Miu.es 

20 40 60 80 100 



o 



^, 



COPVRtSHT. 



.r orake: 






l6 THE LAND AND THE NAME 

Down from the Sierras, mighty glaciers carried the 
soil for this central valley, grinding and pulverizing it 
as it was rolled slowly along. Many years this process 
# continued. The rain, washing the moun- 
tain sides, brought its tribute in the 
rich soil and decayed vegetation of the 
higher region, until a natural seed bed 
was formed, where there can be raised 
in abundance a wonderful variety of 
plants and trees. In the coast valleys the soil is alluvial, 
the fine washing of mountain rocks; this is mixed in 
some places with a warmer, firmer loam and in others 
_ with a gravelly soil, which is the best known for 
orange raising. 
t The state owes much to her mountains, for not 
only have they contributed to her fertile soil, but 
they hold in their rocky slopes the gold and silver 
mines which have transformed the whole region from 
an unknown wilderness to a land renowned for its 
riches and beauty. They lift their lofty peaks high in 
the air like mighty strongholds, and, shutting out the 
desert winds, catch the clouds as they sail in from 
the ocean, making them pay heavy tribute in fertilizing 
rain to the favored land below. 

The climate, which of all the precious possessions of 
California is the most valuable, is best described by Bret 
Harte in the lines, " Half a year of clouds and flowers ; 
half a year of dust and sky." Either half is enjoyable, 
for in the summer, or dry season, fogs or delightful 
westerly winds soon moderate a heated spell, and in 
nearly all parts of the state the nights are cool ; while 



THE CLIMATE 



17 




the rainy, or winter season, changes to balmy spring- 
time as soon as the storm is over. 

In a large portion of the state the cHmate is such 
that the inhabitants may spend much of their time out 
of doors. As a rule few duties are attended to in 
the house which can possibly be performed in 
the open air. It is growing to be more and 
more the custom to have, in connection with 
a Californian home, a tent bedroom where 
the year round one or more of the mem- 
bers of the family sleep, with only a wall 
of canvas between them and nature. 

The vacation time is spent largely in 
summer camps, at either mountain or 
seashore, or, quite often, a pleasant 
party of one or two families Hve together, very simply, 
under the greenwood tree beside some spring or stream, 
spending a few weeks in gypsy fashion. While the 
young folk grow sturdy and beautiful, 
the older members of the party be- 
come filled with strength and a joy 
of living which helps them through 
the cares and struggles of the rest 
of the year. This joy in outdoor 
life is not, however, a discovery 
of to-day. The old Spanish 
families spent as much time as 
possible in the courtyard, the 
house being deserted save at 
journeys, men, women, and children slept in the open 
air. Even the clothes-washing period was turned into a 




When upon 



i8 



THE LAND AND THE NAME 




kind of merrymaking. Whole families joined together 
to spend days in the vicinity of some stream, where they 

picnicked while the linen was 
being cleansed in the running 
water and dried on the bushes 
near by. 

Once before, when the world was 
younger, there was a land similar to 
this, — sea-kissed, mountain-guarded, with such gentle 
climate and soft skies. Its people, who also lived 
much out of doors at peace with nature, became 
almost perfect in health and figure, with mental 
qualities which enabled them to give to the world the 
best it has known in literature and art. What the 
ancient Greeks were, the people of CaHfornia may 
become ; but with an advancement in knowledge and 
loving-kindness of man toward man which heathen 
Athens never knew. 

What will be the result of this outdoor hfe cannot 
yet be told ; climate has always had an active influ- 
ence in shaping the character and type 
^^-/"'^J^X of a people. With a climate mild 
ll'*r"d ^ and healthful, yet bracing; with a 
^Mi soil so rich that the touch of irrigation 
"'^ makes even the sandiest places bloom 
with the highest beauty of plant, tree, and 
vine ; with an ocean warm and gentle, and 
^y— skies the kindliest in the world, — there 
'^''^ is, if we judge by the lesson history 
teaches, a promise of a future for California greater 
and more noble than the world has yet known. 




CHAPTER II 



THE STORY OF THE INDIANS 




UN, Cleeta, run, the waves will catch 
you." Cleeta scudded away, her 
naked little body shining like po 
ished mahogany. She was fleet of 
foot, but the incoming breakers from 
the bosom of the great Pacific ran faster still ; and the 
little Indian girl was caught in its foaming water, rolled 
over and over, and cast upon the sandy beach, half 
choked, yet laughing with the fun of it. 

" Foolish Cleeta, you might have been drowned ; that 
was a big wave. What made you go out so far ? " said 
Gesnip, the elder sister. 

" I found such a lot of mussels, great big ones, I wish 
I could go back and get them," said the little one, 
looking anxiously at the water. 

"The waves are coming in higher and higher and it 
is growing late," said Gesnip ; ** besides, I have more 
mussels already than you and I can well carry. The 
boys have gone toward the river mouth for clams. 
They will be sure to go home the other way." 
Cleeta ran to the basket and looked in. 

19 



20 THE STORY OF THE INDIANS 

'* I should think there were too many for us to 
carry," she said, as she tried with all her strength to 
lift it by the carry straps. '* What will you do with 
them ; throw some back into the water ? " 

" No, I don't like to do that," answered her sister, 
frowning, '* for it has been so long since we have had 
any. The wind and the waves have been too high for us 
to gather any. Look, Cleeta, look ; what are those out 
on the water ? I do believe they are boats." 

'* No," said the little girl ; " I see what you mean, but 
boats never go out so far as that." 

"Not tule boats," said Gesnip, "but big thick ones 
made out of trees ; that is the kind they have at Santa 
Catalina, the island where uncle Hves. It has been a 
long time since he came to see us, not since you were 
four years old, but mother is always looking for him." 

The children gazed earnestly seaward at a fleet of 
canoes which were making for the shore. " Do you think 
it is uncle .'' " asked Cleeta. 

"Yes," repHed her sister, uncertainly, "I think it may 
be." Then, as the sunlight struck full on the boats, 
" Yes, yes, I am sure of it, for one is red, and no one 
else has a boat of that color; all others are brown." 

"Mother said he would bring abalone when he came," 
cried Cleeta, dancing from one foot to the other ; " and 
she said they are better than mussels or anything else 
for soup." 

"He will bring fish," said Gesnip, "big shining fish 
with yellow tails." 

" Mother said he would bring big blue ones with 
hard little seams down their sides," said Cleeta. 



CLEETA AND GESNIP 21 

Meantime the boats drew nearer. They were of logs 
hollowed out until they were fairly light, but still seem- 
ing too clumsy for safe seagoing craft. In each were 
several men. One sat in the stern and steered, the 
others knelt in pairs, each man helping propel the boat 
by means of a stick some four feet long, more like a 
pole than a paddle, which he worked with great energy 
over the gunwale. 

" I am afraid of them," said Cleeta, drawing close to 
her sister. " They do not look like the people I have 
seen. Their faces are the color of the kah-hoom mother 
weaves in her baskets. There are only three like us, 
and they all have such strange clothes." 

" Do not be afraid," said Gesnip. " I see uncle; he is 
one of the dark ones like ourselves. The island people 
have yellow skins." 

The time was the year 1540, and the people, the Cali- 
fornians of that day. The men in the boat were mostly 
from the island of Santa Catalina, and were fairer, with 
more regular features, than the inhabitants of the main- 
land, who in southern California were a short, thick-set 
race, with thick lips, dark brown skin, coarse black hair, 
and eyes small and shining like jet-black beads. They 
were poorly clothed in winter; in summer a loin cloth 
was often all that the men wore, while the children 
went naked a large part of the year. 

With wonderful skill the badly shaped boats were 
guided safely over the breakers until their bows touched 
the sand. Then the men leaped out and, half wading, 
half swimming, pulled them from the water and ran 
them up on the beach. 

B. CAL. — 2 



22 



THE STORY OF THE INDIANS 



/ 




The little girls drew near and stood quietly by, wait- 
ing to be spoken to. Presently the leading man, who 
^—^ was short, dark, and handsomely dressed in 
" "v \ a suit of sealskin ornamented with abalone 
shell, turned to them. 

"Who are these little people.?" he asked, 
in a kind voice. 

" We are the children of Cuchuma and 
Macana," rephed Gesnip, working her toes 
in and out of the soft sand, too shy to look 
her uncle in the face. 

*' Children of my sister, Sholoc is glad to 
see you," said the chief, laying his hand 
gently on Cleeta's head. " Your mother, is 
she well ? " 

" She is well and looking for you these many moons," 
said Gesnip. 

The men at once began unloading the boats. The 
children watched the process with great interest. 
Abalone in their shells, a dainty prized then as well as 
now, fish, yellowtail and bonito, filled to the brim the 
large baskets which the men slung to their backs, 
carrying them by means of a strap over the forehead. 
On their heads they placed ollas, or water jars, of 
serpentine from quarries which may be seen in Santa 
Catalina to-day, the marks of the tools of workmen of 
that time still in the rocks. 

There were also strings of bits of abalone shell 
which had been punctured and then poHshed, and these 
Sholoc hung around his neck. 

" Uncle," exclaimed Gesnip, touching one of these 



THE VISIT OF SHOLOC 



23 



strings, " how much money ! You have grown rich 
at Santa CataHna. What will you buy ? " 

" Buy me a wife, perhaps," was the reply. *' I will 
give two strings for a good wife. Do you know any 
worth so much ? " 

*' No," said the girl, stoutly. '' I don't know any 
worth two whole strings of abalone. You can get a 
good wife for much less." 

The men, who had succeeded in loading the contents 
of the boats on their heads and backs, now marched 
away, in single file, crossing the heavy sand dunes 
slowly, then mounting the range of foothills 
beyond. The children followed. Gesnip 
had her basket bound to her head by a 
strap round her forehead ; but, though her 
uncle had taken out part of the contents, 
it was a heavy load for the child. 

As they neared the top of the hill, Sholoc, who was 
ahead, lifted his hand and motioned them to stop. 

"Hush," he said softly, "elk." Swiftly the men 
sHpped off their loads and with bows in hand each one 




'b/2« 








crept flat on his belly over the hill crest. Gesnip and 
Cleeta peeped through the high grass. Below them 




24 THP: story of the INDIANS 

was a wide plain, dotted with clumps of bushes, and 
scattered over it they could see a great herd of elk, 
whose broad, shining antlers waved above the grass and 
bushes upon which they were feeding. 

** Are those elk too ? " asked Cleeta, presently, point- 
ing toward the foothills at their left. 

" No," replied her sister, '* I think those are antelope. 
I like to see them run. How funny their tails shake. 
But watch the men; they are going to shoot." 

As she spoke, four of the hunters, who had crept well 
up toward the game, rose to their feet, holding their bows 
horizontally, not perpendicularly. These weapons, 
which were made of cedar wood, were about four feet 
in length, painted at the ends black or dark blue, the 
middle, which was almost two inches broad, being 
wrapped with elk sinew. The strings also were of 
sinew. The quiver which each man carried at his side 
was made from the skin of a wild cat or of a coyote. 
A great hunter like Sholoc might make his quiver from 
the tails of lions he had killed. Projecting from the 
quiver were the bright-feathered ends of the arrows, 
which were of reed and were two or three feet long, 
with points of bone, flint, or obsidian. 

The hunters, knowing how hard it was to kill large 
game, had chosen their arrows carefully, taking those 
that had obsidian points. Almost at the same moment 
they let fly their shafts. Three elk leaped into the air. 
One tumbled over in a somersault which broke one of 
its antlers, and then lay dead, shot through the heart by 
Sholoc. Another took a few leaps, but a second arrow- 
brought it to its knees. Then it sank slowly over upon 



THE HUNT 25 

its side ; but it struck so fiercely at the hunter who ran 
up to kill it with his horn knife that he drew back and 
shot it again. 

" Where is the third elk ? " asked Cleeta, looking 
around. 

''Over there," said Gesnip, pointing across the 
plain. 

" Then they have lost it," said the child, with disap- 
pointment. 

" No, I think not. It is wounded. I saw the blood 
on its side,"' said the sister. " See, one of the men is 
following it, and it is half a mile behind the herd. I am 
sure he will get it." 

" This has been a lucky day," said Gesnip. " So 
much food. Our stomachs will not ache with 
hunger for a long time." 

" That is because mother wove a game 
basket to Chinigchinich so he would send 
food," said Cleeta. 

By the time the party had traveled two 
miles, Gesnip, with her load, and Cleeta, whose bare 
brown legs were growing very tired, lagged behind. 

" O dear," said the elder sister, " we shall surely be 
too late to go into camp with uncle." Just then a whoop 
sounded behind them, and a boy of thirteen, dressed in 
a rabbit-skin shirt, carrying a bow in his hand, came 
panting up to them. 

" Payuchi," said Gesnip, eagerly, "carry my basket for 
me and I will tell you some good news." 

" No," replied Payuchi, shaking his head, " it is a 
girl's place to carry the basket." 




26 THE STORY OF THE INDIANS 

"Just this little way, and it is such good news," urged 
Gesnip. " It will make your heart glad." 

*' Very well, then, tell it quickly," said the boy, chang- 
ing the basket of mussels to his own broad back. 

'' Sholoc has come from Santa Catalina with baskets of 
abalone and fish, and with ollas all speckled, and strings 
of money. He is near the top of the grade now." Upon 
hearing the good news the lad darted away at a great 
pace, his sisters following as fast as they could. Sholoc 

. and his party had stopped to rearrange their loads, 
U|/r/ so the children overtook them at the head of the 
trail leading to their home. 

Below them was a valley dotted with live 
oaks, and along the banks of the stream that 
ran through it was a thick growth of alders, 
'"'(;■ I'L sycamores, and willows. At the foot of the 
trail, near the water, was a cluster of what 
looked like low, round straw stacks. No straw stacks 
were they, however, but houses, the only kind of homes 
known in southern California at that time. 

It was the Indian settlement where Gesnip, Cleeta, 
and Payuchi lived, and of which their father, Cuchuma, 
was chief. The jacals, or wigwams, were made of long 
willow boughs, driven into the ground closely in a circle, 
the ends bent over and tied together with deer sinews. 
They were covered with a thatching of grass that, when 
dry, made them look like straw stacks. 

Sholoc stepped to the edge of the bluff and gave a 
long, quavering cry which could be heard far in the still 
evening air. Instantly out of the group of jacals came 
a crowd of men and boys, who gave answering cries. 




THE VISIT OF SHOLOC 



27 



" I am glad they have a fire," said Cleeta, as she saw 
the big blaze in the middle of the settlement, ** I am so 
cold." 

''Take my hand and let's run," said Gesnip, and 
partly running and partly sliding, they followed the 




*4|^^ 



AN 



Aj^ 
^ "^^..^s 



\ '\ 



!(■ 






men of the party, who, notwithstanding their heavy 
loads, were trotting down the steep trail. 

They were met at the foot of the grade by a crowd 
which surrounded them, all chattering at once. Sholoc 
told of the elk, and a number of men started off on the 
run to bring in the big game. As the visitors entered 
camp, Macana, a kind-faced woman, better dressed than 
most of her tribe, came forward. She placed her hand 
on Sholoc's shoulder, her face lighting up with love and 
happiness. 



28 THE STORY OF THE INDIANS 

" You are welcome, brother," she said. 

" The sight of you is good to my eyes, sister," an- 
swered Sholoc. That was all the greeting, although the 
two loved each other well. Macana took the basket 
from Payuchi's back. 

" Come," she called to Gesnip, " and help me wash 
the mussels." Then, as she saw the younger girl shivering 
as she crouched over the fire, " Cleeta, you need not be 
cold any longer; your rabbit-skin dress is done. Go 
into the jacal and put it on." Cleeta obeyed with danc- 
ing eyes. 

Gesnip followed her mother to the stream. 

*' Take this," said Macana, handing her an openwork 
net or bag, " and hold it while I empty in some of the 
mussels. Now lift them up and down in the water to 
wash out the sand. That will do ; put them into this 
basket, and I will give you some more." 

Meantime some of the women had taken a dozen or 
more fish from Sholoc's baskets, and removing their 
entrails with bone knives, wrapped them in many thick- 
nesses of damp grass and laid them in the hot ashes and 
coals to bake. 

When the mussels were all cleaned, Macana emptied 
them into a large basket half filled with water, and threw 
in a little acorn meal and a handful of herbs. Then, using 
two green sticks for tongs, she drew out from among the 
coals some smooth gray stones which had become very 
hot. Brushing these off with a bunch of tules, she lifted 
them by means of a green stick having a loop in the end 
which fitted round the stones, flinging them one by one 
into the basket in which were the mussels and water. 



FOOD 29 

Immediately the water, heated by the stones, began to 
boil, and when the soup was ready, she set the basket 
down beside her own jacal and called her children to 
her. Payuchi, Gesnip, Cleeta, and their little four-year- 
old brother, Nakin, gathered about the basket, helping 
themselves with abalone shells, the small holes of which 
their mother had plugged with wood. 

"Isn't father going to have some first?" asked Pa- 
yuchi, before they began the meal. 

** Not this time ; he will eat with Sholoc and the men 
when the fish are ready," replied his mother. 

" This is good soup," said Gesnip. '' I am glad I 
worked hard before the water came up. But, Payuchi, 
didn't you and Nopal get any clams ? " 

*' Yes," said her brother, making a face ; he had dipped 
down where the stones were hottest and the soup thick- 
est, and had taken a mouthful that burned him. ''Yes, 
we got some clams, more than I could carry ; but 
Nopal was running races with the other boys and would 
not come, so I left him to bring them. He will lose 
his fish dinner if he doesn't hurry." 

" Mother," said Cleeta, ** may we stay up to the fish 
bake.?" 

" No," answered her mother. '' You and Nakin must 
go to bed, but I will save some for your breakfast. 
You are tired, Cleeta." 

" Yes, I am tired," said the little girl, leaning her 
head against her mother's shoulder, " but I am warm in 
my rabbit-skin dress. We all have warm dresses now. 
Please tell me a good-night story," she begged. "We 
have been good and brought in much food." 




30 THE STORY OF THE INDIANS 

" Yes, tell us how the hawk and coyote made the 
sun," said Gesnip. 

" Very well," said the mother, " only you must be 
quite still. 

** It was in the beginning of all things, and a bowl of 
darkness, blacker than the pitch Hning of our water 
basket, covered the earth. Man, when he 
would go abroad, fell against man, against 
trees, against wild animals, even against 
Lollah, the bear, who would, in turn, hug the 
unhappy one to death. Birds flying in the 
^^ air came together and fell struggling to 
^ ~ ^ the earth. All was confusion. 

" Once the hawk, by chance, flew in the face 
of the coyote. Instead of fighting about it as 
naughty children might, they, like people of good 
\^ manners, apologized many times. Then 

^ they talked over the unhappy state of things 
and determined to remedy the evil. The 
^' coyote first gathered a great heap of dried 
tules, rolled them together into a ball, and gave 
them to the hawk, with some pieces of flint. 
The hawk, taking them in his talons, flew 
straight up into the sky, where he struck fire 
with his flints, lit the ball of reeds, and left it there 
whirling along with a bright yellow light, as it con- 
tinues to whirl to-day; for it, children, is our sun, ruler 
of the day. 

'' The hawk next flew back for another ball to rule 
the night, but the coyote had no tule gathered, and the 
hawk hurried him so that some damp stems were mixed 



? 




BED TIME 31 

in. The hawk flew with this ball into the sky and set it 
afire, but because of the green tules it burned with only 
a silver light ; and this, children, is our moon, ruler of 
the night." 

*' That is a fine story," said Payuchi. " I am glad I 
did not live when there was no light." 

*'Tell us how the coyote danced with the star," said 
Gesnip. 

'* No," replied the mother, ** another time we shall see. 
Now I shall sing to coax sleep to tired eyes, and the 
little ones will go to bed." And this was what she sang : 
" Pah-high-nui-veve, veve, veve, shumeh, veve, veve, 
veve, shumeh, Pah-high-nui-veve," and so on, repeating 
these words over and over until Cleeta and Nakin were 
sound asleep. Then she laid them on their tule mats, 
which were spread on the floor of the jacal, where baby 
Nahal, close wrapped in his cocoon-shaped cradle, had 
been a long time sleeping. 

*' Mother," said Gesnip, coming into the jacal, "they 
have brought in the elk. Don't you want something 
from them ? " 

" Yes," replied Macana, " I will go and see about it. 
I want one of the skins to make your father a warm 
hunting dress." 

The Indians who had gone after the elk had skinned 
and cut them up where they lay, as they were so large 
that the burden had to be distributed among a number 
of carriers. Macana found Sholoc busy portioning out 
parts of the elk. As he had a fine seal-skin suit him- 
self, he gladly gave her the skin of the deer which he 
had shot. 



32 THE STORY OF THE INDIANS 

** Isn't that a big one?" said Payuchi. "It will 
make father a fine hunting suit, it is so thick." Gesnip 
was loaded down with some of the best cuts of the meat 
to take to her father's jacal. Cuchuma himself began 
removing the tendons from the legs, to cure for bow- 
strings, and to wrap a new bow he was going to make. 

" Here, Nopal," said Sholoc to his oldest nephew, a 
lad of fifteen, " I will give you a piece of the antler and 
you can grind it down and make yourself a hunting 
knife. It is time you ceased to play and became a 
hunter. I had killed much game when I was your age." 

*' Will you give me some of the brains that I may finish 
tanning a deerskin } I have been waiting to finish it 
until I could get some brains, but it has been a long 
time since any one has brought in big game," said 
Macana. 

"Yes," answered Sholoc, "you shall have them. 

^_ Payuchi, hand me my elk-horn ax 

/^'^^=^--' ^^^^^>^^=^' so that I can split open the head, 

#^ and you can take the brains to the jacal." 
cL=::a Soon not a piece of meat, a bit of skin, 
^^^^'■^.rn,^.^-''^''^ tendon, or bone, was left. All was put to 
^^.^^_^®w^ J ^^^ ^^ these people of the forest. 

Y<v^»;:*S -^^^5^^f^i*^ And now the feast was ready. The 
women had roasted many pieces of elk's 
meat over the coals. The fish had been ^^^_ 
taken from under the hot ashes, the half- ^^^^^^ 
burned grass removed from around them, 
and the fish broken into pieces and put in flat baskets 
shaped like platters. There were also pieces of elk 
meat and cakes of acorn meal baked on hot stones. 



THE OFFERING TO CHINIGCHINICH 33 

As was the custom with the Indians, the men were 
served first. Payuchi watched anxiously as his father 
and the other men took large helpings from the baskets. 

" Do you think there will be enough for us to have 
any ? " he asked Gesnip. " I am so hungry and they 
are eating so much. If I were a man, I should remem- 
ber about the women and children." 

" No ; you wouldn't if you were a man ; men never 
do," answered Gesnip. " But you need not worry, there 
is plenty. Mother said there would be some left for 
breakfast." 

"Wait for that till I get through," said Payuchi, 
laughing. After all had eaten a hearty meal, more 
than for many weeks they had been able to have at any 
one time, the tired women each gathered her children 
together and took them to her own jacal, leaving the 
men sitting around the camp fire. Payuchi, who tum- 
bled to sleep as soon as his head touched his sleeping 
mat, was wakened by some one pulling his rabbit-skin 
coat, which he wore nights as well as days. 

*' Payuchi," said a voice, " wake up." 

** I have not been asleep," answered the boy, stoutly, 
as he rubbed his eyes to get them open. " What do you 
want, Nopal ? " for he saw his brother speaking to him. 

'* Hush, do not waken mother," said Nopal, speaking 
very softly. '* I know that the men will make an offer- 
ing to Chinigchinich. I am going to watch them. We 
are old enough, at least I am. Do you want to come ? " 

A star shone in at the top of the jacal, and Payuchi 
gazed up at it, blinking, while he pulled his thoughts 
together. 



34 THE STORY OF THE INDIANS 

"They will punish us if they find us out," said he at 
length. 

"But we -won't let them find us out, stupid one," 
repHed his brother, impatiently. 

" What if Chinigchinich should be angry with us ? He 
does not like to have children in the ceremony of the 
offering," said Payuchi. 

" I will give him my humming-bird skin, and you shall 
give him your mountain quail head; then he will be 
pleased with us," answered Nopal. 

" All right," said the boy; " I do not like very well to 
part with that quail head, but perhaps it is a good thing 
to do." 

Creeping softly from the jacal, the boys crouched in 
the shade of a willow bush and watched the men by the 
camp fire. 

"They are standing up. They are just going," said 
Payuchi, "and every one has something in his 
hand. Father has two bows; I wonder why." 
" I think he is going to make an offering of 
the new bow to Chinigchinich," answered Nopal. 
" I thought he was going to keep it and give me his 
old one," he added, with some disappointment. 

" What are they offering for } " asked the young 
brother. 

" For rain," said Nopal. " See, they are going now." 
In single file the men walked swiftly away, stepping so 
softly that not a twig cracked. 

After a little the boys followed, slipping from bush to 
bush that they might not be discovered. They had 
walked about a mile, when they came to thicker woods 




THE OFFERING TO CHINIGCHINICH 35 

with bigger trees and saw a light ahead of them. Nopal 
laid his hand on his brother to stop him. Peeping 
through a scrub-oak bush, they looked down. into a little 
glade arched over with great live oaks. In the middle 
of the opening they saw, by the light of a low fire, a 
small cone-shaped hut. Beside it stood a gigantic figure 
painted and adorned with shells, feathers, rattlesnake- 
skins, and necklaces of bone. 

** Come back," whispered Payuchi, his teeth chatter- 
ing with fear. '* It is Chinigchinich himself; he will see 
us, and we shall die." 

'*No," answered Nopal, ''itisonly Nihie, the medicine 
man. He looks so tall because of his headdress. It 
is made of framework of dried tules covered with feath- 
ers and fish bladders. I saw it one day in his jacal, and 
it is as tall as I am. That jacal beside him is the van- 
quech [temple], and I think there is something awful 
there. You see if there isn't. Hush, now ! Squat 
down. Here they come." 

In a procession the men came into the opening, and, 
stalking solemnly by, each cast down at the door of the 
temple an offering of some object which he prized. 
Cuchuma gave a bone knife which he greatly valued, 
and a handsome new bow. Sholoc gave a speckled 
green stone olla from Santa CataHna and a small string 
of money ; but these were chiefs' offerings. The other 
gifts were simpler — shells, acorn meal, baskets, birds' 
skins, but always something for which the owner cared. 

At last the medicine man, satisfied with the things 
offered, which became his own when the ceremony was 
over, stooped and drew forth the sacred emblem from 




36 THE STORY OF THE INDIANS 

the temple. It was not even an idol, only a fetich com- 
posed of a sack made from the skin of a coyote, the 
head carefully preserved and stuffed, while 
,, the body was dressed smooth of hair and 
\^^ adorned with hanging shells and tufts 
of birds' feathers. A bundle of arrows 
protruded from the open mouth, giving it a fierce 
appearance. While Nihie held it up, the men 
circled round once again, this time more 
rapidly, and as they passed the medicine man, 
each gave a spring into the air, shooting an 
j arrow upward with all his force. When the last 
man had disappeared under the trees, Nihie re- 
'^ placed the skin in the temple, put out the fire, 
and, singing a kind of chant, he led the men back to 
their jacals. The boys stood up. Payuchi shivered 
and drew a long breath. 

'* We must get away now; Nihie will be back soon to 
get the offerings," said Nopal. 

'' But first we must offer our gifts, or Chinigchinich will 
be angry," said Payuchi. 

"Come on, then," said the brother; so, stealing softly 
down the hillside, the boys cast their offerings on the 
pile in front of the hut and ran away, taking a round- 
about path home, that they might not meet the medicine 
man returning. 

"We must hurry to get in the jacal before father," 
said Nopal, suddenly. " I didn't think of that. Run, 
Payuchi, run faster." But they were in time after all, 
and were stretched out on their mats some minutes 
before their father and Sholoc came in. 



THE JOURNEYS OF SHOLOC 37 

Macana's first duty in the morning was to attend to 
the baby, whose wide-open black eyes gave the only 
sign that it was awake. She unfastened it from the 
basket and unwrapped it, rubbing the little body over 
with its morning bath of grease until the firm skin 
shone as if varnished. When it had nursed and 
was comfortable, she put the little one back in its 
cradle basket, which she leaned up against the side 
of the hut, where the little prisoner might see all that 
was going on. 

Instead of the usual breakfast of acorn meal mush, the 
children had a plentiful meal of fish which their mother 
had saved from the feast of the night before. 

" I didn't think any one could catch so many fish as 
uncle brought last night," said Cleeta, as she helped her- 
self to a piece of yellowtail. 

"Yes, they do, though," said Payuchi. "Last night, 
after supper, uncle told the men some fine stories. 
I think he has been in places which none of our people 
have ever seen. 

*' He told us that once he journeyed many moons 
toward the land of snow and ice until he came to the coun- 
try of the Klamath tribe, where he stayed a long time. 
He said that when they fish they drive posts made of 
young trees into the bottom of the river and then weave 
willow boughs in and out until there is a wall of posts 
and boughs clear across the stream. Then the big 
red fish come up from the great water into the river. 
They come, uncle said, so many no one can count them, 
and the ones behind push against those in front until 
they are all crowded against the wall, and then the 

B. CAL. — 3 




38 THE STORY OF THE INDIANS 

Klamath men catch them with spears and nets until 
there is food enough for all, and many fish to dry." 

*'I should Hke to see that. What else did he tell 
you ? " asked Gesnip. 

" He said he visited one place where the great salt 
water comes into the land and is so big it takes many 
days to journey round it. Here the people eat fish, 
clams, and mussels instead of acorns and roots. On 
the shore they have their feasting ground where they 
go to eat and dance and tell big stories, and 
sometimes to make an offering. So many 
people go there, uncle said, that the shells 
they have left make a hill, a hill just of 
shells that is many steps high. From the top 
of it one may look over the water, which is so long 
no eye can see the end of it." 

"What else did you hear ? " asked Gesnip. 

" Nothing more, for mother called me," replied her 
brother. " I should like to hear more of those stories, 
though." 

"Mother," asked Gesnip, as she finished her break- 
fast, " when am I to begin to braid mats for the new 
jacal ? " 

" Soon," replied Macana. " This morning you and 
Payuchi must gather the tule. Have a large pile when 
I come home." So saying, the mother strapped the 
baby on her back and, accompanied by the younger 
children, went out with other women of the tribe to 
gather the white acorns from the oaks on the highlands 
near the mountains. 

The December wind, from the snow-capped peaks, 



MAKING A CANOE 39 

chilled and cut with its icy breath their scantily clothed 
bodies, but for hours they worked picking up the 
scattered nuts. The labors of an Indian mother ceased 
only while she slept. 

"Come, Payuchi," said Gesnip, "let us go down to 
the river and get tules." 

" All right," replied the boy, readily. " Sholoc is going 
down too. He is going to show the men how to make 
log canoes like his instead of the tule canoes our people 
use. But I like the tule canoes, because I can use my 
feet for paddles." When they reached the river, which 
was really a lagoon or arm of the sea, the children 
stopped to watch the men at work. A large log, 
washed down from the mountains by some flood, lay 
on the bank. It was good hard wood, and the children 
saw that it was smoking in three places. 

" This is going to make two canoes, but neither one 
will be so big as uncle's," said Payuchi. 

" How can it make two canoes if they burn it up ? " 
asked his sister. 

"You are stupid, Gesnip," said her brother. " Don't 
you see they are burning it to separate it into two parts ? 
Then they will burn each log into the shape 
of a boat, finishing it up with axes of bone or 
horn. Uncle told me how they did it." 

"Why have they put the green bark on the 
top of the log } " 

" I think it is to keep it from burning along the edge ; 
don't you see.'* And then there are wider pieces to 
protect it at the ends. See how they watch the fire 
and beat it out in one place and then in another." 




40 THE STORY OF THE INDIANS 

'* Why does it burn so fast ? " asked Gesnip. 

*' Because they have daubed it with pitch. Can't you 
smell it? " said the boy, sniffing. 

"Yes, I can smell it," replied his sister. " But come 
now and help me gather tules. Father is going to burn 
down our house and build a new one for winter, and I 
must make a tule rug for each one of you for beds in 
the new home. It will take a great many tule stems." 

" It is cold to wade," said Payuchi, stepping into the 
water at the edge of the river. 

"Yes," answered Gesnip, "I don't Hke to gather tules 
in winter." 

The children pulled up the long rough stems one by 
one until they had a large pile. 

" I think we have enough," said Payuchi, after they 
had been working about two hours. 

"Yes, I think so too," said his sister. "My back 
aches, my hands are sore, and my feet are so cold." 
Payuchi brought some wild grapevine with which he 
tied the tule into two bundles, fastening the larger upon 
his sister's back ; for with his people the women and 
girls were the burden bearers, and a grown Indian 
would not do any work that his wife could possibly do 
for him. 

After they had traveled a little way on the homeward 
path, Gesnip stopped. 

"Don't go so fast, Payuchi," she begged. "This 
bundle is so large it nearly tumbles me over." 

"Just hurry a little until we get to the foot of the 
hill yonder where Nopal and the other big boys are 
playing, and you can rest while I watch the game," 



THE HOOP GAME 4I 

answered her brother. Gesnip struggled on, bending 
under the weight and size of her awkward burden until, 
with a sigh of relief, she seated herself on a stone to 
rest while Payuchi, throwing his bundle on the ground, 
stood up to watch the boys. 

"See, Nopal is It," he said. Nopal, coming forward, 
stooped low and rolled a hoop along the ground, which 
the boys had pounded smooth and hard for the game. 

As the hoop rolled another boy stepped forward and 
tried to throw a stick through it, but failed. Then all 
the players pointed their fingers at him and grunted 
in scorn. Again Nopal rolled the hoop, and this time 
the boy threw through the ring, and all the boys, and 
Payuchi too, gave whoops of delight. 

The children watched the game until Gesnip said that 
they must go on, for their mother would be home and 
want them. When they returned, Macana was warming 
herself by the fire where the men were sitting. 

*' See our tule ; is it not a great deal ? " asked the 
children, showing their bundles. 

**Yes, but not enough," replied their mother. ''You 
will have to go out another day." 

The women, who had been working all the morning 
gathering acorns, now squatted near the fire and began 
grinding up the nuts which had been already dried. 

''Gesnip," called her mother, "bring me the grinding 
stones." The girl went to the jacal and brought two 
stones, one a heavy bowlder with a hollow in its top, which 
had been made partly by stone axes, but more by use ; 
the other stone fitted into this hollow. 

" Now bring me the basket of roasted grasshoppers," 



42 



THE STORY OF THE INDIANS 




said the mother. Taking a handful of grasshoppers, 
Macana put them into the hollow in the larger stone, 
and with the smaller stone rubbed them to a coarse 
powder. This powder she put into a small basket 
which Gesnip brought her. 

" I am glad we caught the grass- 
hoppers. They taste better than acorn 
meal mush," said Payuchi. 

" How many grasshoppers there 
are in the fall," said Gesnip, ** and 
so many rabbits, too." 

*' We had such a good time at the 
rabbit drive," said Payuchi. 
And such a big feast afterwards, nearly 
as good as last night," said Gesnip. 

*' Tell me about the rabbit drive," said Cleeta, squat- 
ting down beside the children in front of the fire. 

*' It was in the big wash up the river toward the 
mountains," began Payuchi. " You have seen the rabbits 
running to hide in a bunch of grass and cactus when 
you go with mother to the mountains for acorns, haven't 
you ? " 

Cleeta nodded. '' Not this winter, though. We saw 
only two to-day," she said. 

" That is because of the drive," said her brother. " It 
was in the afternoon, with the wind blowing from the 
ocean, and all the men who could shoot best with bow 
and arrow, or throw the spear well, stood on the other 
side of the wash.". 

" Father was there," said Cleeta. 

" Yes, and many others," said Payuchi. '' Then some 



THE RABBIT DRIVE 43 

of the men and all of us boys got green branches of trees 
and came down on this side of the wash. Nopal started 
the fire. It burned along in the grass slowly 
at first, and when it came too near the jacals /i/"/*! 
on one side or the woods on the other, we / 

would beat it out with the branches, but soon it yr 
ran before the wind into the cactus and bunch grass, u^,^ 
The rabbits were frightened out and ran from the ' M 
fire as fast as they could, and in a few minutes ^ / 
they were right at the feet of father and the / /'"^ 
other hunters. They killed forty before the y^^^ 
smoke made them run too." ( 

" My dress was made of their skin," said the 
little girl, smoothing her gown lovingly. " It A 
keeps me so warm." J^ v ^' '". 

" Did the fire burn long ? " asked Gesnip. {( '^' ^^ ^ 

" No, we beat it out, or it would have ^ 
gone up the wash into the live oaks ; then we boys 
should have been well punished for our carelessness." 

Here their mother called to them. 

" Payuchi," she said, '' put away this basket of grass- 
hopper meal. And, Gesnip, go to the jacal and find me 
the coils for basket weaving." 

" What shall I bring ? " asked Gesnip. 

" The large bundle of chippa that is soaking in a bas- 
ket, and the big coil of yellow kah-hoom and ^e little 
one of black tsuwish which are hanging up, and bring 
me my needle and bone awl." 

*' Do you want the coil of millay ? " 

" No, I shall need no red to-day." 

Squatted on the ground, where she could feel the 



f.^ 



44 



THE STORY OF THE LNDIANS 



warmth of the fire on her back, but where the heat could 
not dry her basket materials, Macana began her work. 
Taking a dripping chippa, or willow bough, from the 
basket where it had been soaking, she dried it on leaves 
and wound it tightly in a close coil the size of her thumb- 
nail, then spatted it together until it seemed no longer 
a cord, but a solid piece of wood. Thus she made the 




base of her basket ; then, threading her needle, which was 
but a horny cactus stem set in a head of hardened pitch, 
she stitched in and out over the upper and under the 
lower layer, drawing her thread firmly each time. The 
thread was the creamy, satin-like kah-hoom. Round 
and round she coiled the chippa, the butt of one piece 
overlapping the tip of another, while with her needle 
she covered all with the smoothly drawn kah-hoom. 



MAKING BASKETS 45 

After a time she laid the kah-hoom aside for a stitch 
or two of the black root of the tule, called tsuwish. 

The children had watched the starting of the basket, 
then had begun a game of match, with white and black 
pebbles. After a time Gesnip, looking up from her 
play, exclaimed, as she saw the black diamond pattern 
the weaver was making : — 

*' Mother, why are you weaving a rattlesnake bas- 
ket ? " 

*' I am making it to please Chinigchinich that he may 
smile upon me and guard you, children, and Cuchuma 
from the bite of the rattlesnake. There are so many of 
them here this year, and I fear for you." 

" Thank you, mother," said Gesnip. *' If Titas's 
mother had made a black diamond basket, maybe the 
snake would not have bitten her." 

'* I think Chinigchinich does smile upon you," said 
Payuchi, '* for when we were so hungry in the month of 
roots [October] you wove him the hunting basket with 
the pattern of deer's antlers, trimmed with quail feathers, 
and see how much food we have had: first the rabbits, 
then the grasshoppers, and now the fish and elk." 

" While you work tell us how the first baby basket 
was made," begged Cleeta. The mother nodded ; and 
as she wound and pressed closely the moist chippa, 
and the cactus needle flew in and out with the creamy 
kah-hoom or the black tsuwish, she told the story. 

"When the mother of all made the basket for the 
first man child, she used a rainbow for the wood of the 
back of the basket, with stars woven in each side, and 
straight Hghtning down the middle in front. Sunbeams 



46 THE STORY OF THE INDIANS 

shining on a far-away rain storm formed the fringe in 
front, where we use strips of buckskin, and the carry 
straps were brightest sunbeams." 

** Mother, you left out that the baby was wrapped in 
a soft purple cloud from the mountains," said Cleeta. 

" Yes, in a purple cloud of evening, wrapped so he 
could not move leg or arm, but would grow straight and 
beautiful," said the mother. 

For a long while the children watched in silence the 
patient fingers at their work ; then Gesnip asked, '' Is it 
true, mother, that when you were a httle child your 
father and mother and many of your tribe died of 
hunger ? " 

" It is true," replied Macana, sadly, " but who told 
you .? " 

" Old Cotopacnic, but I thought it was one of his 
dreams. Why were you all so hungry ? " asked the 
girl. 

" Because the rain failed for three seasons. After a 
time there was no grass, no acorns, the rabbits and deer 
died or wandered away, the streams dried up so there 
were no fish, the ground became so dry that there were 
no more grubs or worms of any kind, no grasshoppers. 
There was nothing to eat but roots. Nearly all our 
tribe died, and many other people, too." 

** How did you Hve ? " asked Payuchi. 

" My aunt had married a chief whose home was in a 
rich valley in the mountains where it is always green. 
She came down to see my mother, and when she found 
how hard it was to get food for us all, she took me 
by the hand and tumbled Sholoc, who was smaller 



THE FAMINE 4/ 

than little Nakin, into her great seed basket and took 
us off to the mountains until times should grow better ; 
but the rains did not come until it was too late. I 
stayed with her until I married your '^^^ 
father. Sholoc became r -i^ 




great hunter, then chief ot 

the people of Santa Cata- ^^""""^s^ 

lina, where he became a great fisherman also." 

The children looked grave. 

'' Do you think such bad seasons can ever come 
again ? " asked Gesnip. 

"Who can tell?" replied the mother, with a sigh. 
" Last year was very bad and there is little rain yet this 
year. That is why the men offered gifts to Chinigchi- 
nich last night." 

" Nobody must take me away from you to keep me 
from being hungry," said gentle Cleeta, hiding her face 
in her mother's lap. 

" If I were Chinigchinich," said Payuchi, '* I would 
not let so many people die, just because they needed a 
little more rain. I would not be that kind of a god." 

" Hush, my child," said the mother, sternly. " He 
will hear and punish you. If it is our fate, we must 
bend to it." 



CHAPTER III 

"THE SECRET OF THE STRAIT" 
Cabrillo 




NE afternoon in September, in the 
year 1542, two broad, clumsy ships, 
each with the flag of Spain flying 
above her many sails, were beating 
their way up the coast of southern 
California. All day the vessels had been wallowing in 
the choppy seas, driven about by contrary winds. At 
last the prow of the leading ship was turned toward 
shore, where there seemed to be an opening that might 
lead to a good harbor. At the bow of the ship stood 
the master of the expedition, the tanned, keen-faced 
captain, Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo. He was earnestly 
watching the land before him, which was still some 
distance away. 

"Come hither, Juan," he called to a sturdy lad, about 
sixteen, who, with an Indian boy, brought from Mexico 
as interpreter, was also eagerly looking landward. ** Your 
eyes should be better than mine. Think you there is a 
harbor beyond that point .? " 

48 



CABRILLO 49 

" It surely seems so to me, sir," answered the boy ; 
" and Pepe, whose eyes, you know, are keener than ours, 
says that he can plainly see the entrance." 

"■ I trust he is right ; for this thickening weather 
promises a storm, and a safe harbor would be a gift of 
God to us weary ones this night," said the captain, with 
a sigh. 

Since the fair June day when they had sailed out of the 
harbor on the west shore of Mexico, they had been fol- 
lowing first up the coast line of the Peninsula, 
then of Upper California. No maps or 
charts of the region showing where lay 
good harbors or dangerous rocks, could be 
found in Cabrillo's cabin. Instead, 
there were maps of this South Sea 
which pictured terrible dangers for 
mariners — great whirlpools which 
could suck down whole fleets of 
vessels, and immense waterfalls, 
where it was thought the whole ocean poured off 
the end of the land into space. A brave man was 
Captain Cabrillo, for, half believing these stories, he yet 
sailed steadily on, determined, no matter what happened 
to himself, to do his duty to the king under whose flag 
he sailed, and to the viceroy of Mexico, whose funds 
had furnished the expedition. 

California has ever been noted for its brave men, but 
none have been more courageous than this explorer, who 
was probably the first white man to set his foot upon its 
soil. As the ship approached land the crew became silent, 
every eye being turned anxiously to the opening of the 




50 



THE SECRET OF THE STRAIT 



passage which appeared before them. The vessel, driven 
by the stiff breeze, rushed on, almost touching the rock 
at one point. Then, caught by a favorable current, it 
swept into mid-channel, where it moved rapidly forward, 
until at length it rode safely in the harbor now known 
as San Diego Bay. 

"It is a good port and well inclosed," said Juan Ca- 
brillo, with great satisfaction, gazing out upon the broad 
sheet of quiet water. " We will name it for our good 
San Miguel, to whom our prayers for a safe anchorage 
were offered this morning." Then, when the two ships 
were riding at anchor, the commander ordered out the 
boats. 

** We will see what kind of people these are, dodging 
behind the bushes yonder," said he. As the Spaniards 
drew near shore they could see many fleeing figures. 
What a pity they are so afraid," said Cabrillo. " If 
we are to learn anything of the country, we 
must teach them that we mean them no harm." 
** Master," said Pepe, "there are three of them 
hiding behind those bushes." 

" Is it so, lad ? Then go you up to them. They will 
not fear you." So the Indian boy walked slowly for- 
ward, holding out his hands with his palms upward, 
which not only let the natives see that he was unarmed, 
but in the sign language meant peace and friendship. 
As he drew near to them an old man and two younger 
ones, dressed in scanty shirts of rabbit-skins, came from 
their hiding places and began to talk to Pepe, but, 
though they also were Indians, they did not speak his 
language. Some of their words were evidently similar 




CABRILLO 51 

to his, and by these and the help of signs he partly 
understood what they said. Presently he returned to 
the group on shore. 

" They say there are Spaniards back in the country a 
few days' journey from here." 

" Spaniards ? That is impossible," returned Cabrillo. 

" They say that they are bearded, wear clothes like 
yours, and have white faces," answered the boy, simply. 

" They must be mistaken, or perhaps you did not un- 
derstand them fully," said the master. " At another time 
we will question them further. Now, give them this 
present of beads and hurry back, for it is late." 

That night some of the men from the ships went on 
shore to fish. While they were drawing their nets, the 
Indians stole up softly and discharged their arrows, 
wounding three. The boy Juan had the most serious 
injury, an arrow being so deeply embedded in his 
shoulder that it could not be removed until they reached 
the ship. There the padre, who, like most priests of 
that day, knew something of surgery, drew it out, and 
bound up the shoulder in soothing balsams. 

On the second day of their stay in port the pind 
began to blow from the southwest ; the waves grew 
rough, and Cabrillo ordered the ships to be made ready 
for the tempest, which soon became violent. Meantime, 
Juan lay suffering in his hammock, which swung back- 
ward and forward with the motion of the ship. Sud- 
denly he heard a step beside him and felt a cool hand 
on his forehead. 

" How goes it, lad ? " said Cabrillo, for it was the mas- 
ter himself. *' You are suffering in a good cause. Have 



52 



"THE SECRET OF THE STRAIT" 



courage ; you will soon be well. Remember, you have 
helped to discover a harbor, the like of which is seldom 
found. This storm is a severe one. I can hear the surf 
booming on the farther shore, yet our ship shows no 
strain on the anchor. Good harbor though it is, I am 
sorely disappointed, as I had hoped it was the entrance 
to the strait, the strait that seems a phantom flying before 
us as we go, drawing us onward to we know not what." 
The sadness of the captain's voice troubled Juan. 

"Master," he asked earnestly, "what is the strait? 
I hear of it often, yet no one can tell me what it is, or 
where it lies." 

" Because no one knows," answered the captain, ris- 
ing. " I am needed on deck, but I will send old Tomas 
to tell you its strange story." 

" The secret of the strait," said old Tomas, as he 
seated himself beside Juan, " has led many men to gal- 
lant deeds and also many a man to a gallant death. 
Always, since as a lad I first went to sea, the merchants 
of many lands have been seeking a safe and speedy way 
of reaching the Indies, where are found such foods, 
spices, and jewels as one sees nowhere else in the world. 

" My father and grandfather used to travel with car- 
avans overland to and from India, There are several 
routes, each controlled by some one of the great Italian 
cities, but all have somewhere to cross the desert, where 
the trains are often robbed by wild tribes. Sometimes, 
as they come nearer home, they are held by the Turks 
for heavy tribute, with such loss that the merchants have 
been forced to turn to the sea in hopes that a better way 
might be found. It was while searching for this route 



CABRILLO 53 

that Columbus discovered the new world, and when the 
news of his success was brought back to Europe there 
was great rejoicing, because it was thought that he had 
reached some part of India. Magellan's voyage, how- 
ever, destroyed these hopes. He sailed for months 
down the eastern shore of the new land, and discovered, 
far away to the south, a strait through which he reached 
the great South Sea, but then he still sailed on for 
nearly a year before he came to the Spice Islands and 
Asia. 

*' Now every one' believes that somewhere through 
this land to the north of us there is a wide, deep sea 
passage from the North Sea [Atlantic] to the South 
Sea [Pacific], by which ships may speedily reach India. 
This passage is called the Strait of Anian. 

*' The great captain, Hernando Cortez, the conqueror 
of New Spain [Mexico] spent many years and a large 
fortune seeking for this water way. Four different ex- 
peditions he sent out to explore this coast : most of 
them at his own cost. In the second one his pilot, 
Jiminez, led a mutiny, murdered his captain, and after- 
ward discovered, accidentally, the southern point of this 
land we are now exploring. But it was not the good 
fortune of the noble Cortez to discover the strait. Our 
captain is the next to take up the search, and may God 
send him success." 

After a stay of nearly a week in the bay of San Diego, 
Cabrillo continued his voyage up the coast, sailing by 
day, anchoring at night. He touched at an island which 
he 'named San Salvador, but which we know as Santa 
Catalina. Here, by his kind and generous treatment, 

B. CAL. — 4 



54 



"THE SECRET OF THE STRAIT 



he won the friendship of the natives. From this 
beautiful spot, he sailed, one Sunday morning, to the 
mainland. Entering the Bay of San Pedro, he found it 
enveloped in smoke. 

" It seems a fair port," said the commander, "but go 
no farther inland. Drop anchor while we can see our 

way. We may well 
call this the Bay 
of Smokes." The 
fires, they found, 
had been started 
by the Indians to 
drive the rabbits 
from shelter, so 
they could be the more easily 
killed. 

Sailing on, the ships an- 
a thickly settled val- 
ley, where the town of Ventura 
now lies. Here, on October 
12, 1542, Cabrillo and his com- 
pany went on shore and took 
solemn possession of the land 
in the name of the king of Spain and the viceroy of 
Mexico. Here, and along the channel, the people were 
better-looking, more comfortably lodged and clothed, 
than those farther south. They also had good canoes, 
which the natives of the lower coast did not possess. 
Pushing on, the explorer saw and noted the channel 
islands and rounded Point Conception. From here he 
was driven back by contrary winds, and toward night- 




CABRILLO 55 

fall of a stormy day found himself near the little island 
now named San Miguel. 

" We will call it La Posesion and take it for our own," 
said Cabrillo, **for, if we can but make it, there seems to 
be a good harbor here." The storm, however, grew 
more severe. The sea rose until occasionally the waves 
swept over the smaller ship, which was without a deck. 
Here occurred a most unhappy accident. Something 
about the ship, a spar probably, loosened by the storm, 
fell and struck the brave commander, breaking his arm. 
Although severely injured, he would not have the 
wounds dressed until, after a long period of anxiety, 
the two ships entered in safety the little harbor of San 
Miguel. 

Here, stormbound, they remained for a week. When 
they ventured forth, they again met with high winds 
and bad weather. Cabrillo, who in spite of discourage- 
ments never forgot his search for the strait, pushed 
close inshore and kept much of the time on deck look- 
ing for some signs of a river or passage. One morning 
at daybreak, after a rough night, they found tl;jemselves 
drifting in an open bay. 

" It is a fine roadstead," said Cabrillo, coming on deck, 
as the sun rose over the pine-covered hills. "Were 
it smaller, it would be a welcome harbor. We will name 
it from those majestic trees La Bahia de Pinos, and 
yonder long projection we will call the Cabo de Pinos." 
That bay is now called Monterey, but the cape still 
bears the name given it by this first explorer. 

Anchoring in forty-five fathoms of water, they tried 
to go on shore, in order to take possession of the land. 



56 -^THE SECRET OF THE STRAIT" 

but the sea was so rough that they could not launch 
their boats. The next day they discovered and named 
some mountains which they called Sierra Nevada, and, 
sailing on, went as far north as about 40°. But this 
winter voyage was made at a great sacrifice. The ex- 
posure and hardships, following the wound he had 
received, were too much for even the hardy sailor Juan 
Rodriguez Cabrillo. After weeks of struggle with 
storms, the ships were forced back to their old shelter 
at San Miguel. Here Christmas week was spent, but 
a sad holiday it was to the explorers, for their brave 
leader lay dying. Nobly had he done his duty up to 
the last. 

" Juan," he said, to his young attendant, on Christmas 
Eve, " how gladly the bells will be ringing in Lisbon 
to-night. I seem to hear them now. They drive out 
all other sounds. Call Ferrelo and let no one else come 
but the padre." Very soon Juan returned with Cabrillo's 
first assistant, the pilot, Ferrelo, a brave navigator and 
a just man. 

*' Ferrelo," said Cabrillo, faintly, " Death calls me, 
and the duty I lay down you must take up. I com- 
mand you to push the expedition northward at all 
hazards, and to keep such records as are necessary in 
order that fitting account of our voyage shall be given 
to the world. Will you promise me to do this ? " 

"I will, my master," said Ferrelo, simply. *' To the 
best of my ability will I take up your work." 

" Always looking for the strait, Ferrelo ? " 

" Always, senor." 

On the 3d of January, 1543, the brave man died 



DRAKE 57 

and was buried in the sands of Cuyler Harbor on San 
Miguel Island. His men called the island Juan 
Rodriguez. This name was afterwards dropped, but 
California should see to it that the island is rechristened 
in honor of the great sailor who sleeps there. 

Ferrelo later succeeded in sailing as far north as Cape 
Mendocino and perhaps as far as 42°, but, though he 
kept as close to the shore as possible, he failed to 
discover the great bay whose waters, spreading like a 
sheet of silver over sixty miles of country, lay hidden 
just behind the Golden Gate. Near the Oregon line he 
was driven back by storms, and returned to Mexico, 
where he published a full account of the voyage. 

Drake 

In the town of Offenburg, Germany, there is a statue 
of a man standing on the deck of a ship, leaning against 
an anchor, his right hand grasping a map of America, 
his left, a cluster of bulbous roots. On the pedestal is 
the inscription, *' Sir Francis Drake, the introducer of 
potatoes into Europe in the year of our Lord 1586." 

While it is doubtful whether this honor really belongs 
to Drake, an Englishman, seeing the statue, would be 
inclined to say, '* Is this all that Germany has to tell of 
the great captain who led our navy against the Spanish. 
Armada; the first Englishman to sail around the world; 
the most daring explorer, clever naval commander, 
expert seaman, brave soldier, loyal friend, and gallant 
enemy of his time ? " A Spaniard, on the contrary, 
might well exclaim, " Why did Germany erect a statue 
to this terrible man whom our poets call Dragontea 



58 "THE SECRET OF THE STRAIT'^ 

[Dragon], this greatest of all pirates, this terror of the 
sea ? " All this, and more, might be said of one man, 
who began life as a ship's boy. 

At the. time Drake first went to sea, England and 
'Spain were by no means friendly. Henry the Eighth 
of England had ill-treated his wife, who was a Spanish 
princess. In addition he had drawn the EngHsh people 
away from the Church of Rome. These things were 
most displeasing to Spain, but there was still another 
reason for disagreement. The interests of the two 
countries were opposed commercially, and this was the 
most important cause of contention. 

Spain claimed by right of discovery, and gift of the 
Pope of Rome, all the land in the new world except 
Brazil (which belonged to Portugal), and held that no 
explorers or tradesmen, other than her own, had any 
rights on her waters or in her ports. English seamen 
denied much of this claim, and so frequent were the 
disputes arising upon the subject that the EngHsh 
sailors adopted as a maxim, " No peace beyond the line," 
meaning the line which was, by the Pope's decree, the 
eastern boundary of the Spanish claim. 

The favorite prey of the British mariners was the 
treasure ships carrying to Spain the precious cargoes of 
gold and silver from the rich mines of the new world. 
With the far richer ships of the Philippine and Indian 
trade, sailing on unknown waters, they had not, up to 
Drake's time, been able to interfere. 

Drake, when a very young man, had joined a trading 
expedition to Mexico. While there the English were 
attacked by the Spanish in what the former considered 




DRAKE 59 

a most treacherous manner. Drake's brother and many 

of his comrades were killed, and their goods taken. 

After the battle he solemnly vowed 

to be revenged, and so thoroughly 

did he carry out his resolution that 

he was for years the terror of the 

Spanish seamen, and, by many of the 

superstitious common sailors, believed to be Satan 

himself come to earth in human form. 

Shortly after this unfortunate expedition Drake en- 
gaged in a marauding voyage to Panama, where he 
captured rich stores of gold and silver and precious 
stones. He gained such renown for his bravery and 
seamanship that upon coming home he found himself 
famous. 

Queen Elizabeth knew that Spain was opposed to her 
and her religion, and was not in her heart displeased 
when her brave seamen got the better of their Spanish 
rivals. She received Drake privately, and help was 
offered him secretly from people who stood high in the 
government. With this encouragement he resolved to 
embark on a most hazardous and daring adventure. 
While in Panama he had seen, from a " high and goodlie 
tree " on a mountain side, the great Pacific, and was 
immediately filled with a desire to sail on its waters and 
explore its shores. He therefore determined to cross 
the Atlantic, pass through the Strait of Magellan, up 
the Pacific, and to plunder the Spanish towns along the 
coast of South and Central America, until he should 
reach the region traversed by the richly laden Spanish 
ships coming from India and the Philippines. It is said 



6o "THE SECRET OF THE STRAIT" 

that the queen herself put a thousand crowns into this 
venture. One thing is certain, that he received sufficient 
help to fit out five small vessels, with one hundred and 
sixty-four men. With these he sailed from Falmouth, 
England, in December of 1577. With the exception 
of perhaps one or two of the rich men who had 
helped him, no one, not even his men, knew of his 
plans. 

After a long and interesting voyage in which one 
vessel was lost and the others, though he did not know 
it, had deserted him, he found himself with but one ship 
beating his way up the coast of Lower California. This 
was his flagship Pelican, which he had rechristened 
the Golden Hind. It was then so laden with rich booty, 
that it was like a hawk which had stolen too heavy a 
chicken, driven this way and that by the winds, scarcely 
able to reach its nest. 

In addition to a good store of Chile wines and foods 
of various kinds, there were packed away in the hold of 
the Golden Hind, twenty-five thousand pesos of gold, 
eight thousand pounds of English money, and a great 
cross of gold with " emeralds near as large as a man's 
finger." From one vessel Drake had taken one hundred- 
weight of silver ; from a messenger of the mines, who 
was sleeping beside a spring on the Peruvian coast, 
thirteen bars of solid silver ; off the backs of a train of 
little gray llamas, the camels of the Andes, eight hundred 
pounds of silver; and besides all these were large quan- 
tities of gold and silver that were not recorded in the 
ship's list, and stores of pearls, diamonds, emeralds, 
silks, and porcelain. 



DRAKE 6l 

The last prize taken was the Spanish treasure ship 
Cacafiiegos. Drake had transferred its cargo and crew 
to his own vessel and, for a time, manned it with some 
of his men. Its noble commander, St. John de Anton, 
who had been wounded in the attack, received every 
possible attention on the English vessel, and in the 
report which he afterwards made to the viceroy of 
Mexico, he told of the perfect order and discipline 
maintained on the Golden Hind, and of the luxury 
which surrounded its commander, who was treated with 
great reverence by his men. 

Before sailing on to the northward, Drake restored 
St. John and his crew to their vessel. Then, because he 
feared that they might fall into the hands of his fleet 
(having no suspicion that the other captains had returned 
home), he gave the Spaniards the following letter, which 
shows the great Englishman to have been more honorable 
than he is oftentimes represented : — 

"To Master Winter and the Masters of the other 
Ships of my Fleet : ^ 

*' If it pleaseth God that you should chance to meet 
with this ship of St. John de Anton, I pray you use him 
well according to my promise given him. If you want 
to use anything that is in the ship, I pray you pay him 
double value for it, which I will satisfy again. And 
command your men not to do any harm and what agree- 
ment we have made, at my return unto England, I will, 
by God's help, perform, although I am in doubt that 
this letter will ever come to your hand, notwithstanding 
I am the man I have promised to be, 



62 "THE SECRET OF THE STRAIT" 

" Beseeching God, the Saviour of the world, to have 
us all in his keeping, to whom I give all honor, praise, 
and glory, 

'• Your sorrowful captain, whose heart is heavy for you, 

"Francis Drake." 

How to get home was the problem which this daring 
man had now to solve. There was no possibility of re- 
turning by the way he had come. He well knew that 
the news of his departure had reached Spain, and that 
her war ships would be waiting for him, not only at the 
eastern entrance of the Strait of Magellan, but at the 
Isthmus and in the Caribbean Sea. 

If by sailing northward he could find the Strait of 
Anian, then his homeward journey would be safe and 
short ; but if he could not find that illusive body of 
water, then there was left to him but the Pacific for a 
highway. However, this did not daunt him, as he felt 
that what the Portuguese Magellan had done, Drake 
the Englishman could do. 

Keeping well out from shore, the Golden Hind now 
sailed northward for nearly two months. Drake passed 
just west of the F'arallon Islands, never dreaming of 
the great harbor which lay so short a distance on the 
other side. He traveled as far north as latitude 42° 
or possibly 43°, and perhaps he even landed at one 
point, but he failed to find the strait. According to 
Fletcher, the priest of the Church of England who kept 
a journal of the expedition, they were finally forced by 
the extreme cold to turn southward. *' Here," says 
Fletcher, "it pleased God on this i;*th day of June, 



DRAKE 



63 



1579, to send us, in latitude 38°, a convenient fit harbor." 
This is now supposed to be Drakes Bay, which lies thirty 
miles northwest of San Francisco, in Marin county. 

"In this bay we anchored, and the people of the 
country having their houses close to the water-side 




Drakes Bay 



showed themselves unto us and sent presents to our 
general. He, in return, courteously treated them and 
liberally bestowed upon them things necessary to cover 
their nakedness. 

" Their houses are digged around about with earth 
and have for the brim of that circle, clefts of wood set 
upon the ground and joined closely together at the top 
Hke the spire of a steeple, which by reason of this close- 
ness are very warm. The men go naked, but the women 
make themselves loose garments knit about the middle, 
while over their shoulders they wear the skin of a 
deer." 

These people brought presents and seemed to want to 
offer sacrifices to the strangers as gods, but Drake, 
hastily caUing his men together, held divine services, 
"To which, especially the prayers and music," says 
Fletcher, " they were most attentive and seemed to be 
greatly affected." The Bible used by Drake in this serv- 



64 "THE SECRET OF THE STRAIT" 

ice is still to be seen in Nut Hall House, Devonshire, 
England. 

Presently a messenger came, saying that the king 
wished to visit them if they would assure him of their 
peaceful intentions. Drake sent him presents, then 
marched his force into a kind of fort he had had made in 
which to place such parts of the cargo as it was neces- 
sary to remove in order to careen the ship for repairing. 
The coming of the chief is thus described : — 

*'He came in princely majesty. In the fore-front 
was a man of goodly personage who bore the scepter 
whereon was hung two crowns with chains of marvelous 
length. The crowns were made of knit-work wrought 
with feathers of divers colors, the chains being made of 
bony substances. 

** Next came the king with his guard, all well clothed 
in Connie skins, then the naked common people with 
faces painted, each bearing some presents. After cere- 
monies consisting of speeches and dances, they offered 
one of the crowns to Drake, who, accepting in the name 
of Elizabeth, allowed it to be placed on his head." 

While the men were busy cleaning and repairing the 
ship, the commander and his officers made excursions 
into the interior, visiting many Indian towns and passing 
through wide plains where vast herds of deer, often one 
thousand or more, all large and fat, were feeding on the 
rich grasses. They also saw great numbers of what 
they called connies, which, from their description, must 
have been ground squirrels, or else some variety of 
animal now extinct. The country Drake named New 
Albion, partly from its white cliffs, which resembled 



DRAKE 65 

those of his native land, and partly in belief that it 
would be easier to lay claim to the country if it bore 
one of the names applied to England. 

"When the time came for our departure," continued 
Fletcher in his journal, " our general set up a monument 
of our being here, so also, of her majesty's right and 
title to the land : namely a plate nailed upon a fair great 
post, whereon was engraved her majesty's name, the 
day and year of our arrival, with the giving up of the 
province and people into her majesty's hands, together 
with her highness' picture and arms in a sixpence 
under the plate, whereunder was also written the name 
of our general." 

Fletcher seemed not to know of Cabrillo's voyage, 
for he claimed that no one had ever discovered land in 
this region, or for many degrees to the south ; while in 
Tact Ferrelo with Cabrillo's ships had sailed as far north 
as latitude 42°, although we have no reason to think 
that he landed in a higher latitude than that of Point 
Conception and San Miguel Island. 

Once again solemn religious services were held by 
the Englishmen on the hospitable soil that had been 
their home for over a month. Then they went on 
board the ship, accompanied to the shore by the griev- 
ing Indians, who would not be comforted when they 
saw their new friends forsaking them. It was near the 
last of July in 1579 that Captain Drake with his brave 
men began his wonderful homeward voyage. 

It was a triumphant return they made in September, 
a year later. Crowds flocked to see the famous ship 
and its gallant commander. 



66 



THE SECRET OF THE STRAIT" 



Some of the queen's statesmen strongly disapproved 
of Drake's attack upon Spanish towns and vessels, and 
felt he should be arrested and tried for piracy ; but the 
common people cheered him wherever he went, and as a 
crowning honor, in the luxurious cabin of his good ship 
Goldejt Hind, he was visited by the great Elizabeth her- 




The Golden Hind 

self. When the banquet was over, at the queen's com- 
mand, he bent his knee before her, and this sovereign, 
who, though a woman, dearly loved such courage and 
daring as he had displayed, tapped him on the shoulder 
and bade him arise " Sir Francis Drake." 



Galli and Carmenon 

In 1584 Francisco GaUi. commanding a Phihppine 
ship, returning to Mexico by way of Japan, sighted the 
coast of California in latitude 37° 30'. He saw, as he 
reported, * a high and fair land with no snow and many 
trees, and in the sea, drifts of roots, reeds, and leaves." 
Some of the latter he gathered and cooked with meat 
for his men, who were no doubt suffering from scurvy. 



VIZCAINO 67 

Galli wrote of the point where he first saw the coast as 
Cape Mendocino, which would seem to imply that the 
point had been discovered and named at some previous 
time, of which, however, there is no record. 

In 1595 Sebastian Carmeiion, commanding the ship 
Sail Agiistin, coming from the Philippines, was given 
royal orders to make some explorations on the coast of 
California, probably to find a suitable harbor for Manila 
vessels. In doing so he was so unfortunate as to run 
his vessel ashore behind Point Reyes, and to lighten her 
was obliged to leave behind a portion of his cargo, con- 
sisting of wax and silks in boxes. There is only the 
briefest record of this voyage, and no report of any 
discoveries. 

Vizcaino 

Almost sixty years after the voyage of Cabrillo, came 
a royal order from the king of Spain to the viceroy of 
Mexico which, translated from the Spanish, ran some- 
thing like this :- - 

" Go, search the northern coast of the Californias, 
until you find a good and sufficient harbor wherein my 
Manila galleons may anchor safe and protected, and 
where may be founded a town that my scurvy-stricken 
sailors may find the fresh food necessary for their re- 
lief. Furthermore, spare no expense." 

The destruction of Spanish shipping by Drake and 
other English seamen who followed his example, had 
caused great anxiety to the Spaniards and was partly the 
reason for this order 

" Send for Don Sebastian," said the viceroy. " He 



6S 



THE SECRET OF THE STRAIT^' 



is a brave gentleman and good sailor. He shall carry 
out the order of the king." But it took time to fit out 
such an expedition, and it was not until an afternoon in 
May, 1602, that Don Sebastian Vizcaino, 
on his flagship, the Sa7i Diego, sailed 
out of the harbor of Acapulco into 
the broad Pacific. Closely follow- 
ing him were his other ships, the 
San Tomas and Tres Reyes. 

There had been solemn 
services at the cathedral that 
afternoon. Officers and men 
had taken of the holy com- 
munion ; and now their wives 
and children stood on the 
island at the entrance of the 
harbor, watching the white sails 
as they grew fainter and fainter and at last disappeared 
in the haze of the coming night. 

Then the watchers returned to their lonely homes with 
heavy hearts, for in those days few came back who sailed 
out on the great South Sea. Storms, battles with the 
natives, and scurvy made sad havoc among the sailors. 

Early in November Vizcaino entered "a famous 
port," which he named San Diego, finding it, as 
Padre Ascension's journal says, " beautiful and very 
grand, and all parts of it very convenient shelter from 
the winds." After leaving San Diego, the next anchor- 
ing place was the island named by Vizcaino for Santa 
Catalina, on whose feast day his ships entered the 
pretty little harbor of Avalon. 




The San Diego 




I 




#'■■ ^ 




70 "THE SECRET OF THE STRAIT" 

The Spaniards were greatly pleased with the island 
and also with the people, whom they described as be- 
ing a large-figured, Hght-complexioned race ; all, men, 
women, and children, being well clothed in sealskins. 
They had large dweUings, many towns, and fine canoes. 
What struck Padre Ascension most strongly was their 
temple, of which he says : " There was in the temple a 
large level court, and about this a circle surrounded by 
feather work of different colors taken from various 
birds which I understand had been sacrificed to their 
idols. Within this circle was the figure of a demon 
painted in color after the manner of the Indians of 
New Spain. On its sides were figures of the sun and 
moon. 

*' It so fell out that when our soldiers came up from 
the ships to view the temple, there were in the circle 
two immense ravens, far larger than ordinary. When 
the men arrived, they flew away to some rocks that 
were near by, and the soldiers seeing how large they 
were, raised their arquebuses and killed them both. 
Then did the Indians begin to weep and make great 
lamentation. I understand that the devil was accus- 
tomed to speak to them, through these birds, for which 
they showed great respect." 

There were in the island quantities of edible roots of 
a variety of the yucca called gicamas, and many little 
bulbs which the Spanish called " papas pequefios " (little 
potatoes). These, the padre said, the Indians took in 
their canoes over to the mainland, thus making their 
living by barter. This certainly must have been the 
beginning of commerce on the coast. 




VIZCAINO 71 

Vizcaino entered and named the Bay of San Pedro. 
To the channel islands he also gave the names which they 
now bear. Sailing on, he discovered a river which he 
named " Carmelo," in honor of the Carmelite friars who 
accompanied him. The same day the fleet rounded the 
long cape called " Point Pinos " and came to anchor in 
the bay formed by its projection. From here the Sa?i 
Tomas was sent to Mexico to carry the sick, 
of whom there were many, and to 
bring back fresh supplies. The 
men who remained were at once set 
to work. Some supplied the two ships with wood and 
water; others built a chapel of brush near the beach, 
under a large oak at the roots of which flowed a spring 
of delicious water. In this chapel mass was said and 
the Te Deum chanted. For over one hundred and fifty 
years this oak was known, both in New Spain and at the 
court of the king, as the " Oak of Vizcaino, in the Bay 
of Monterey." P^rom here Vizcaino wrote to the king 
of Spain as follows : — 

'* Among the ports of greater consideration which I 
have discovered is one in 30° north latitude which I 
called Monterey, as I wrote to your majesty in Decem- 
ber. It is all that can be desired for commodiousness 
and as a station for ships making the voyage from the 
Philippines, sailing whence they make a landfall on this 
coast. It is sheltered from all winds and in the im- 
mediate vicinity are pines from which masts of any 
desired size could be obtained, as well as live oak, 
white oak, and other woods. There is a variety of 
game, great and small. The land has a genial climate 



72 



THE SECRET OF THE STRAIT 



and the waters are good. It is thickly settled by a 
people whom I find to be of gentle disposition, and 
whom I believe can be brought within the fold of the 
Holy Gospel and subjugation to your majesty." 

This enthusiastic praise of the harbor of Monterey by 
a man who was familiar with the port of San Diego, 
caused much trouble later, as will be seen in the study 
of the founding of the missions. 

Not waiting for the return of the San Toinas, Vizcaino 
with his two ships soon sailed northward, and reached 
a point in about latitude 42°, which was probably the 
northern limit reached by Cabrillo's ships and only a 
little lower than the farthest explorations of Drake. 
Although Vizcaino was looking for harbors, 
he yet passed twice outside the Bay of San 
Francisco, the finest on the coast, without 
discovering it. After his return to Mexico, 
Vizcaino endeavored to raise an expedition 
to found a settlement at Monterey, even 
going to Spain to press the matter; but other 
schemes were demanding the king's attention, 
and he would give neither thought nor money to affairs 
in the new world ; and so, thoroughly disheartened, 
Vizcaino returned to Mexico. 

From this time for over one hundred and fifty years 
there is no record of explorations along this coast, 
either by vessels from Mexico or by those coming from 
the Phihppines. California seemed again forgotten. 

This is the story of the few voyages made to the coast 
of California previous to its settlement. The first, under 
Cabrillo, was sent out by the viceroy Mendoza, who 




VIZCAINO 73 

hoped to gain fame and riches by the discovery of the 
Strait of Anian, and by finding wealthy countries and 
cities which were supposed to exist in the great north- 
west, about which much was imagined but nothing 
known. 

Drake planned his voyage largely in pursuit of his 
revenge upon Spain, partly for the plunder which he 
hoped to obtain from the Spanish towns and vessels 
along the Pacific coast of America, and partly because 
of his desire to explore the Pacific Ocean. 

Vizcaino also was expected to search for the strait, 
but he was especially sent out to find a good harbor 
and place for settlement on the California coast. This 
was intended in a great measure for the benefit of the 
Philippine trade, but also to aid in holding the country 
for Spain. 



CHAPTER IV 

THE CROSS OF SANTA F^ 




HE king's highway which led up 
from Vera Cruz, the chief port of 
the eastern coast of Mexico, to the 
capital city of New Spain had in the 
eighteenth century more history connected with it than 
any other road in the new world. Over it had passed 
Montezuma with all the splendor of his pagan court. On 
it, too, had marched and countermarched his grim con- 
queror, the great Cortez. Through its white dust had 
traveled an almost endless procession of mules and 
slaves, carrying the treasures of the mines of Mexico and 
the rich imports of Manila and India on toward Spain. 
Over this road there was journeying, one winter day 
in the year 1749, a traveler of more importance to the 
history of the state of California than any one who had 
gone before. He was no great soldier or king, only a 
priest in the brownish gray cloak of the order of St 
Francis. He was slight in figure, and Hmped painfully 
from a sore on his leg, caused, it is supposed, by the 

74 



CALIFORNIA MISSIONS 75 

bite of some poisonous reptile. The chance companions 
who traveled with him begged him to stop and rest 
beside a stream, but he would not. Then, as he grew 
more weary, they entreated him to seek shelter in a 
ranch house near by and give up his journey. 

" Speak not to me thus. I am determined to continue. 
I seem to hear voices of unconverted thousands calling 
me," was all the answer he gave. So on foot, with no 
luggage but his prayer book, he limped out of sight — 
the humble Spanish priest, Junipero Serra. 

While only a schoolboy, young Serra had been more 
interested in the Indian inhabitants of the new world 
than in boyish pleasure. As he grew older it became 
his greatest desire to go to them as a missionary. 
At eighteen he became a priest ; but it was not 
until his thirty-sixth year that he gained the 
opportunity of which he had so long dreamed, 
when, in company with a body of missionaries, 
among whom were his boyhood friends, Francisco 
Palou and Juan Crespi, he landed at Vera Cruz. 

He was too impatient to begin his new work, 
to wait for the government escort which was 
coming to meet them. So he started out on 
foot, with only such companions as he might 
pick up by the way, to make the long journey to the 
city of 'Mexico. 

Sixteen years later, attended by a gay company of 
gentlemen and ladies, there traveled over this road one 
of Spain's wisest statesmen, Jose de Galvez, whom the 
king had sent out to look after affairs in the new world. 
Flourishing settlements were by this time scattered over 



^6 THE CROSS OF SANTA FE 

a large portion of Mexico, and even in the peninsula of 
Lower California there were a number of missions. It 
was almost a hundred years before this time that two 
CathoHc priests of the Society of Jesus had asked per- 
mission to found mission settlements among the Indians 
of this peninsula. 

" You may found the missions if you like, but do not 
look to us for money to help you," was the answer re- 
turned by the officers of the government. So the two 
Jesuit priests set about collecting funds for the work. 

They were eloquent men, and the people who heard 
them preach became so interested in the Indians that 
they were glad to give. And so, little by little, this 
fund grew. As the good work went on, greater gifts 
poured in. Whole fortunes were left them, and finally 
they had a very large sum carefully invested in the city 
of Mexico. This was known as the Pius Fund. From 
it was taken all the money needed for the found- 
ing of the missions of Lower California ; and, many 
years later, the expenses of founding the twenty-one 
missions of Upper California came from the same source. 
This fund became the subject of a long dispute between 
Mexico and the United States, of which an account is 
given in Chapter XL 

In 1767 all the Jesuit priests in New Spain were 
called back to Europe, and a large portion of their 
wealth and missions on the peninsula were given over to 
the order of St. Francis, with Junipero Serra at their 
head. It was Galvez's duty to superintend this change, 
and while he was on his way to the peninsula for that 
purpose he was overtaken by an order from the king of 



CALIFORNIA MISSIONS yy 

Spain to occupy and fortify the ports of San Diego and 
Monterey. The Spanish government had the descrip- 
tion of these ports furnished by Vizcaino in his account 
of his explorations in Upper and Lower California over 
one hundred and sixty years before. 

The articles of the king's order were : first, to establish 
the Catholic faith; second, to extend Spanish dominion; 
third, to check the ambitious schemes of a foreign 
power ; and lastly, to carry out a plan formed by Philip 
the Third, as long ago as 1603, for the establishment of 
a town on the Cahfornia coast where there was a harbor 
suitable for ships of the Manila trade. 

Galvez at once proceeded to organize four expedi- 
tions for the settlement of Upper California, — two by 
land, two by sea. Captain Portola, governor of 
the peninsula, was put in command, with good 
leaders under him. Still, Galvez was not 
satisfied. 

''This is all very well," he said; "these 
men will obey my orders, but they do not 
care much whether this land is settled or 
not, and if discouragements arise, back they will come, 
and I shall have the whole thing to do over again. 
I must find some one who is interested in the work, 
some one who will not find anything impossible. I think 
I shall send for that lame, pale-faced priest, with the 
beautiful eyes, who has taken up the work of these 
missions so eagerly." 

*' So you think we can make the venture a success ? " 
asked Galvez, after he had talked over his plans with 
Junipero. 




78 



THE CROSS OF SANTA FE 



" Surely," said Padre Serra, his eyes shining, his 
whole face glowing with enthusiasm. " It is God's 
work to carry the cross of the holy faith [Santa Fe] 
into the wilderness, and He will go with us; can you 
not hear the heathen calhng us to bring them the 
blessed Gospel? I can see that I have lived all my 
life for this glorious day." 

Then they went to work, the priest and the king's 
counselor — down on the wharf, 
even working with their own 
hands, packing away the cargo. 
'' Hurry ! Hurry!" said Galvez. 
The word was passed along, and 
in a short time the four expedi- 
tions were ready. 
Many were the trials and dis- 
couragements of the various parties. 
Scurvy was so severe among the sailors 
that one ship lost all its crew save two 
men, and there were a number of 
deaths on another ship; while a third 
vessel which started later was never heard 
from. Padre Junipero, who accompanied the second 
land party, under the charge of Governor Portola, 
became so ill from the wound on his leg that the com- 
mander urged him to return; but he would not. Calling 
a muleteer who was busy after the day's march, doc- 
toring the sores on his animals, he said : — 
" Come, my son, and cure my sores also." 
" Padre," exclaimed the man, shocked at the idea, '* I 
am no surgeon; I doctor only my beasts." 




CALIFORNIA MISSIOxNS 79 

"Think then that I am a beast, my child," said the 
padre, "and treat me accordingly." 

The man obeyed. Gathering some leaves of the 
malva, or cheese plant, he bruised them a little, heated 
them on the stones of the camp fire, and spreading 
them with warm tallow, appHed them to the wound. 
The next morning the leg was so much better that the 
cure was thought to be a miracle. Still the padre was 
very weak; and there was great rejoicing in the party 
when at last they looked down from a height on San 
Diego Bay, with the two ships — the Scrii Carlos and 
the San Antonio — riding at anchor, white tents on 
the beach, and soldiers grouped about. Salutes were 
fired by the newcomers and returned by the soldiers 
and ships, and very soon the four expeditions were 
reunited. 

On the next day, Sunday, solemn thanksgiving serv- 
ices were held. Then for fourteen days all were busy 
attending to the sick, making ready for the departure 
of the ship Sa7i Antonio, which was to be sent back 
for supplies, and packing up food and other necessities 
for the journey to Monterey. The San Antonio sailed 
on the 9th of July, 1769, and five days later Governor 
Portola and two thirds of the well portion of the com- 
pany started overland to Monterey. 

Meantime Padre Junipero had been impatiently 
awaiting an opportunity to begin his great work — 
the conversion of the heathen. He had written back 
in his own peculiar way to his friend Padre Palou, 
whom he left in charge of the missions of Lower 
California. 



8o THE CROSS OF SANTA FE 

" Long live Jesus, Joseph, and Mary, this to Fray 
Francisco Palou. 
*' My dear friend and Sir : — 

*' I, thanks be to God, arrived day before yesterday 
at this, in truth, beautiful, and with reason famous, port 
of San Diego. We find Gentiles [the name given to 
the wild Indians] here in great numbers. They seem 
to lead temperate lives on various seeds and on fish 
which they catch from their rafts of tule which are 
formed like a canoe." 

The second day after the departure of Portola and 
his party, Sunday, July i6. Padre Serra felt that the 
glorious moment for which he had so long prayed had 
at length arrived. The mission bells 
were unpacked and hung on a tree, 
and a neophyte, or converted Indian, 
whom he had brought with him from the 
peninsula, was appointed to ring them. 
As the sweet tones sounded on the clear 
air, all the party who were able gathered 
^^^ about the padre, who stood Hfting the 
cross of Christ on high. All joined 
in solemnly chanting a hymn, and a sermon was 
preached. Then with more chanting, the tolling of 
the bells, and the firing of muskets, was concluded the 
ceremony of the founding of the first of the California 
missions, that of San Diego. 

Portola and his men, in spite of many discourage- 
ments, traveled steadily northward for nearly two 
months until at last, one October morning, they saw 
what they thought to be Point Pinos, the name given 




CALIFORNIA MISSIONS 8 1 

by Cabrillo to the pine-covered cape to the south of 
Monterey Bay. They were right in thinking this Point 
Pinos, but the sad part is that when they cHmbed a hill 
and looked down on the bay they had come so far to 
find, they failed to recognize it. 

They tramped wearily over the sun-dried hills that 
bordered it, and walked on its sandy beach, but could 
not believe the wide, open roadstead, encircled by bare 
brown heights, could be the well-inclosed port lying at 
the foot of hills richly green, so warmly described by 
Vizcaino in his winter voyage. It was a great disap- 
pointment, for this was the latitude in which they 
had expected to find Monterey. After talking it over, 
they decided they must be still too far south, so they 
tramped on for many days. 

On the last day of October, those of the party who 
were well enough, climbed a high hill — (Pillar Point 
at the northern extremity of Half Moon Bay) — and 
were rewarded by a glorious view. On their left the 
great ocean stretched away to the horizon line, its 
waves breaking in high-tossed foam on the rocky shore 
beneath them. Before them they saw an open bay, or 
roadstead, lying between the point on which they stood, 
and one extending into the sea far to the northwest. 
Upon looking at their map of Vizcaino's voyage, they 
rightly decided that this farther projection was Point 
Reyes ; the little bay sheltered by the curve of its arm 
was the one named on the map St. Francis, and now 
known as Drakes Bay. Well out to sea they discovered 
a group of rocky islands which they called Farallones; 
but not a man who stood on the height dreamed that 



82 



THE CROSS OF SANTA FE 



only a short distance to the right up the rocky coast 
there lay a bay so immense and so perfectly inclosed 
that it would ever be one of the wonders of the land 
they were exploring. 

On account of the sick of the party, among whom 
were the commander and his lieutenant, it was decided 
to travel no further, but to camp here while Sergeant 




Ortega was dispatched to follow the coast line to Point 
Reyes and explore the little bay it inclosed. 

With a few men and three days' provisions consisting 
of small cakes made of bran and water, which was the 
only food they had left, this brave Spanish officer 
marched away, Httle imagining the honor which was 
soon to be his. Leading this expedition, he was the 
first white man to explore the peninsula where now 
stands the guardian city of the western coast, and we 



CALIFORNIA MISSIONS 83 

must wonder what were his thoughts when, pushing 
his way up some brush-covered heights, he came out 
suddenly upon the great bay we call San Francisco. 

What a mighty surprise was that sixty miles of 
peaceful water that had so long remained hidden from 
European explorers, baffling the anxious gaze of Ca- 
brillo, the faithful explorations of Ferrelo, the eagle 
eyes of Drake, and the earnest search of Vizcaino ! 

Pushing steadily on toward Point Reyes, Ortega en- 
countered a second surprise, when from the Presidio 
hills he looked down on beautiful Golden Gate, whose 
rumpled waters seemed to say : — 

** No farther can you come. We keep guard here." 

Seeing that it was quite impossible for him to reach 
Point Reyes, Ortega decided to return to Portola. He 
found the commander and his party so weakened by 
sickness and the lack of food that it had been decided 
to explore no farther, but to return at once to the 
southern mission. After a painful march of sixty days 
the party reached San Diego. 

Bitter was the disappointment of Padre Junipero 
Serra at the failure to found the mission of Monterey. 
He did not believe, as many of the party reported, that 
the bay was filled up with sand. Keener still was his 
grief when Portola, after looking over the supply of 
food, announced that unless the ship San Antonio or 
the sloop San Jose arrived by a certain date with pro- 
visions, they would have to abandon Upper California 
and return to the peninsula. 

The padre at once called the people together for a 
nine days' session of prayer and other church services 



84 



THE CROSS OF SANTA FE 




at which to pray for the coming of the rehef boat. 
Portola, though he attended the services, went steadily 
on with his preparations for departure. On the 
morning of the day before the one set 
for the beginning of the march toward 
Lower Cahfornia, the padres went to the 
heights overlooking the bay, where they 
remained watching and praying. At 
sea a heavy fog hung over the water. 
Hour after hour passed as they gazed 
out on the lovely bay. Noon came, but 
they would not return to the mission to 
rest or eat. The afternoon wore away, 
the sun sank in the clouds above the horizon, 
^^,,--;.;^ then, as all hope seemed gone, the fog was 
-^-^ lifted by a sunset breeze, and there, far out at 
sea, they saw a white sail. The good men fell 
on their knees in thanksgiving, while their Indian 
servants ran to carry the news to camp. 

This vessel, the Sa7i Antonio, brought not only 
abundant provisions but fresh orders from Galvez to 
hurry the work at Monterey. The settlement of Upper 
California was now made certain. 

An expedition by land and the San Antonio by sea 
immediately started northward. A few weeks later 
Padre Junipero wrote to Padre Palou : " By the favor 
of God, after a month and a half of painful navigation, 
the San Antonio found anchor in this port of Mon- 
terey, which we find imvarying in circumstances and 
substance as described by Don Sebastian Vizcaino." 
They even found Vizcaino's oak. Indeed, it is said 



CALIFORNIA MISSIONS 85 

on good authority, that the oak remained standing un- 
til 1838, when the high tides washed the earth from its 
roots so that it fell. 

Soon the land expedition arrived, and one June morn- 
ing in 1770 the members of the two parties, all in their 
best attire, were gathered on the beach for the purpose 
of founding the second mission. It must have been a 
pretty scene, — the stanch little vessel Sa?i Antonio, gay 
with bunting, swinging at anchor a short distance out, 
while on shore were grouped the sailors in the bright 
dress of seamen of those times, the soldiers in leather 
uniform, the governor and his staff in the handsome 
costumes of Spanish officials, and the padres in their 
gray robes. Close beside the oak a brush house had 
been built, bells hung, and an altar erected. While the 
bells tolled, the solemn service of dedication was held by 
Padre Junipero, and so was founded the Mission 
San Carlos de Borromeo at Monterey. 

Near each of the earlier coast missions there 
was also founded a military station called 
a presidio, a name borrowed from the 
Roman presidium. The word meant a 
fort or fortified town. These presidios 
were intended to guard the safety of the 
missions from the wild Indians, and to 
defend the coast from ships of other countries. 

After the religious services Governor Portola proceeded 
to found the presidio and take formal possession in the 
name of the king of Spain by hoisting and saluting the 
royal banner, pulling up bunches of grass, and casting 
stones, which was an ancient manner of taking posses- 

B. CAL, — 6 




CALIFORNIA MISSIONS 8/ 

sion of a piece of land or country. The presidio of 
Monterey was for a long time the site of the capital 
of Upper California and therefore most important in the 
history of the state. 

For the sake of better land and water the mission site 
was soon removed about three miles, to the Carmelo 
River. Although not so wealthy as some of the mis- 
sions, it was the home of Padre Junipero Serra, presi- 
dent of all the missions, and so its history is especially 
interesting. 

The news of the settlement of San Diego and Mon- 
terey was received in Mexico with great joy, and it was 
resolved to found five more missions above San Diego. 
Four of these were San Gabriel, near the present site 
of Los Angeles; San Luis Obispo, farther north; San 
Antonio; and San Francisco. Before leaving the pen- 
insula, Padre Serra had asked Galvez, ** And for Father 
Francisco, head of our order, is there to be no mission 
for him } " To which Galvez had replied, '* If Saint 
Francis wants a mission, let him cause his port to be 
found and it will be placed there." When the beautiful 
bay was discovered by Sergeant Ortega, it was thought 
that this might be the harbor Saint Francis intended 
for himself, but before naming it for the head of the 
order it was necessary that it should be explored. 
Although two land expeditions were sent up for this 
purpose, they were unsuccessful; and it was not until 
August, 1775, about four months after the eventful bat- 
tle of Lexington had taken place on the Atlantic coast, 
that white men first entered the Bay of San Francisco 
in a ship. 



8S 



THE CROSS OF SANTA FE 



Lieutenant Ayala of the Spanish navy, with the San 
Carlos, had the honor of conducting this expedition. 
He reached the entrance to the bay just as 
4k'-^ night was coming on. Not liking to trust his 
vessel in a strange harbor, he sent 
forward a boat to make explorations, 
and then, as it was a little slow in return- 
ing, he daringly pushed on in the dark- 
ness into the unknown water. His small 
craft bobbed and plunged in the rough 
water of the bar, darted through Golden 
Gate, and came safely to anchor near 
North Beach. Soon after this explora- 
tion it was settled that here Saint 
Francis should have his mission. 
Padre Junipero Serra appointed his 
friend Francisco Palou, who had now joined 
him in his work in Upper California, to make 
this settlement, and on the 9th of October, 1776, there 
was founded in that portion of San Francisco known as 
the Mission District, at the corner of Sixteenth and 
Dolores streets, the mission of San Francisco. This 
is often called Mission Dolores from the name of a 
small lake and stream beside which it was built. To-day 
the name San Francisco rests not only on the old mission 
building, with its white pillars, but on the beautiful city 
which is the metropolis of our western coast. 

As fast as possible Padre Junipero hastened the es- 
tablishment of missions, choosing those places where 
there were the largest native settlements. In the vicin- 
ity of Monterey Bay there were, besides the San Carlos 




The San Carlos 



CALIFORNIA MISSIONS 89 

mission, Santa Cruz on the northern curve of the bay, 
and in the fertile valley back of the Santa Cruz Moun- 
tains the missions of Santa Clara, San Jose, and San 
Juan Bautista. Farther south on a lonely height stood 
Soledad, and much farther south, San Miguel. 

The Indians along the Santa Barbara Channel, of 
whom there were a great many, were more intelligent 
and industrious than in other portions of the country 
settled by the missionaries, and here were the missions 
of Santa Barbara, San Buenaventura, La Purisima, and 
Santa Inez. 

In the south, in the fertile valley where are now the 

great grain fields of Los Angeles county, San Fernando 

was founded. Between San Gabriel ..^^-irbw 

and San Diego were placed San - '^X'i(X!:f'':'jf.'''M^^ 

Juan Capistrano, San Luis Rey, ^ r^ ! ,M • „ /tSl 

and the chapel of Pala. San ' -^^-=-— ,-,:^^,^ 

Rafael and Solano, to the north of 

^ T- • 1^ 1 . ,1 1- . San Fernando Mission 

San rrancisco Bay, complete the hst 

of twenty-one missions of Upper California. 

It is impossible to give more than the names of 
most of these missions, although about each many 
true and beautiful stories might be told. It would 
be well if those who live near one of these noble 
ruins would seek out its particular history and the 
stories connected with it. This would be interesting 
and helpful work for the students in the schools of 
the state. 

The story of the missions seems like a fairy tale, won- 
derful and unreal. Into a wilderness inhabited only by 
savage men and wild animals, hundreds of miles from 



90 



THE CROSS OF SANTA FE 



any civilized settlement, there came these men trained 
as simple priests. 

Two by two they came, bringing with them, for the 
starting of each mission, a few soldiers, seven to ten, a 
few converted Indians from the missions of Lower 
California, a little live stock, some church furniture, and 
always the bells; yet in a little over forty years they had 
succeeded in founding a chain of missions whose sweet- 
toned bells chimed the hours and called to prayer from 
San Diego to the Bay of San Francisco. 

Churches were built larger and often of a purer type 
of architecture than those in the civilized well-settled 
portions of the land, — buildings 
that have lasted for a hun- 
dred years and may last 
many years longer if care 
is taken to preserve them. 
Canals of stone and ce- 
ment and dams of ma- 
"^^ sonry were constructed 
that would do credit to 
our best workmen of to-day. 
The Httle packages of wheat and other grains, seeds 
from Spanish oranges and olives, little dried bundles of 
grapevines from Mexico, developed, under their care, 
into the great fields of grain, groves of oranges and 
olives, and the wide-spreading vineyards of the mission 
ranches. All these wonders were performed with Indian 
workmen trained by the padres. 

But what the missionaries cared for more than their 
success in building and planting were the thousands of 




Sani'a Barbara Mission 



CALIFORNIA MISSIONS gi 

baptized Indians at each mission. These they instructed 
daily for the good of their souls in the truths of the 
Christian religion, while for their bodily needs they were 
taught to plow the earth, to plant seed, to raise and care 
for domestic animals. They learned also many useful 
trades; and music, frescoing, and art were taught those 
who seemed to have an especial taste for such things. 

At the head of this great work was gentle Padre 
Junipero Serra, the most interesting character in the 
history of the missions. He was frail and slender and 
much worn by constant labor of head and hands, but 
his every thought and action seemed to be for others. 
Back and forth from Monterey to San Diego, from mis- 
sion to mission, he traveled almost constantly, teaching, 
baptizing, confirming thousands of his dusky charges! 
He was president of all the missions, and besides this 
was bishop, doctor, judge, and architect, as well as steward 
of the mission products and money. 

Associated with him in his work were a group of noble 
men whose lives were spent in caring for the native 
people with whom they worked and among whom they 
finally died. The inhabitants of California may well 
honor the mission padres for their earnest, unselfish Hves, 
and in no way can this be done so fully as in the pres- 
ervation of the grand old buildings they left behind, 
which are indeed fitting monuments to their devotion,' 
energy, and skill. 

Beginning with San Diego, let us, in fancy, visit the 
missions in the early part of the nineteenth century. 

It is a winter day in the year 1813 when we ride up 
the broad, wind-swept road which leads to the newly 



92 



THE CROSS OF SANTA FE 




Ruins of San Diego Mission 



dedicated mission building of San Diego. The wide 
plain that surrounds it is green with native grass and 
the blades of young wheat. Of the two hundred cattle, 
one hundred sheep, one hundred horses, and twenty 
asses brought up by Padre Juni- 
- ' pero in 1 769 to be divided among 

the earlier missions, San 
Diego had only its due 
share ; yet under the 
wise management of 
the padres, they have 
now at this mission, 
feeding on the green 
plains, thousands of 
cattle, horses, and sheep, which are tended by com- 
fortably clothed Indian herders. Near the mission are 
the green and gold of orange orchards, the gray of the 
olive, and the bare branches of extensive vineyards. 
At one side we see a large kitchen garden where young 
Indians are at work planting and hoeing. 

As we draw up in front of the church, Indian 
servants come out to take our horses. We dismount, and 
a padre who is superintending work in the orchard 
comes and welcomes us with gentle courtesy. He sends 
us a servant to show us to our room, a small square 
apartment with a hard earthen floor and bare, white- 
washed walls with no ornament but a cross. The beds 
are of rawhide stretched over a frame. The covering 
consists of sheets of coarse cotton grown and woven at 
the southern missions, and blankets, coarse but warm, 
made by the Indians from the wool of the mission sheep. 



CALIFORNIA MISSIONS 93 

Dinner at the padre's table we find most enjoyable. 
There is beef and chicken, the frijole, or red bean of 
Spain, and other vegetables prepared in a tasty manner 
peculiar to Spanish cooking, so we do not doubt that 
the cook has been taught his trade by the padre himself. 
The Indian boys who wait on the table also show careful 
training, performing their duties quickly and quietly. 
Here we can find for bread the tortilla, — still the food 
of the Indian and Mexican people of California. It is 
a thin cake made of meal or flour and water, and baked 
without grease on a hot stone or griddle. Wines made 
at the mission, the favorite chocolate, thick and sweet, 
and some fruit from the padre's garden complete the 
meal. 

Dinner over, we visit the church and admire the 
striking contrast between the red tiles of the roof and 
the creamy white of the walls. All the buildings are 
made of bricks molded from a clay called adobe and 
dried slowly in the sun. Each brick is twelve inches 
square by four inches thick, and the walls are laid two 
or three bricks deep, those of the church itself being 
nearly four feet in thickness. It seems almost impos- 
sible that so large and well made a building could have 
been constructed by untrained workmen. Next to the 
church are the rooms of the padres, then the dining 
room and the quarters of the mission guard, which con- 
sists apparently of but two men, the rest being at the 
presidio, several miles away. Adjoining these are the 
storehouses and shops of the Indian workmen, all of 
which open on the great courtyard. 

In the courtyard is a busy scene. Blacksmiths with 



94 THE CROSS OF SANTA FE 

hammer and anvil make sounding blows as they work up 
old iron into needed farm utensils. The soap maker's 
caldron sends up a cloud of ill-smelling steam. At one 
side carpenters are at work trimming and cutting square 
holes in logs for the beams of new buildings which the 
padres wish to put up. Saddle makers, squatted on the 
ground, are busy fashioning saddletrees, carving, and 
sewing leather. The shoemaker is hard at work with 
needle and awl. These and many other trades are all 
going on at once. These courts, which are called patios, 
were generally several acres in extent and at the most 
flourishing period of the missions each settlement often 
gave shelter to over a thousand people. 

Behind the central court is the home of the unmarried 
women. This, and the rooms for their work, open on a 
separate square where there is shade from orange and 
fig trees and a bathing pond supplied by the zanja, or 
water ditch. Here square-figured, heavy-featured Indian 
girls are busy spinning and weaving thread into cloth. 
Others are cutting out and sewing garments. Some, 
squatted on the ground, are grinding corn into a coarse 
meal for the atole, or mush. At the zanja several are 
engaged in washing clothes. Here these girls live under 
the care of an old Indian woman, and unless she ac- 
companies them they may not, until they are mariied, 
go outside these walls. Near the mission we visit a 
long row of small adobe buildings, the homes of the 
famihes of the Christian Indians ; a neat, busy settle- 
ment where the Httle ones, comfortably clothed, play 
about attended by the older children, while the mothers 
work for the padres four or five hours daily. 




CALIFORNIA MISSIONS 95 

Leaving San Diego and traveling northward along 
" El Camino Real," the highway which leads from mis- 
sion to mission, we reach San Luis Rey, *' King of the 
Missions," as it is sometimes called. Its church is the 
largest of all those erected by the padres, being one 
hundred and sixty feet long, fifty-eight feet wide, and 
sixty feet high. Its one square, two-story tower has a 
chime of bells, the sweet clear tones of 
which reached our ears while we were 
yet miles from the mission. Counting ■•'^ 

the arches of the long corridor, 
we find there are two hundred JC 

and fifty-six. This mission be- 

San Luis Rey Mission 
came very wealthy. At one tune 

it had a baptized Indian population of several thousand, 
owned twenty-four thousand cattle, ten thousand horses, 
and one hundred thousand sheep, and harvested four- 
teen thousand bushels of grain a year. 

Its prosperity was due in a great measure to good 
Padre Peyri, who had charge of it from its beginning. 
Many years afterwards, as we shall see, the padres 
were ordered by the Mexican government to leave 
their missions, the wealth they had gathered, and the 
Indians they had taught and cared for. Father Peyri, 
knowing how hard it would be for him to get away 
from his Indian children, as he called them, slipped 
off by night to San Diego. In the morning the Indians 
missed him. Learning what had happened, five hun- 
dred of them mounted their ponies in hot haste and 
galloped all the way to San Diego, forty-five miles, to 
bring him back by force. They arrived just as the 



96 



THE CROSS OF SANTA FE 



ship, with Padre Peyri on board, was weighing anchor. 
Standing on deck with outstretched arms, the padre 
blessed them amid their tears and loud cries. Some 
flung themselves into the water and swam after the 
ship. Four reached it, and, cHmbing up its sides, so 
implored to be taken on board that the padre consented 
and carried them with him to Rome, where one after- 
wards became a priest. 

The next link in our chain, the most beautiful of all 
the missions, is that of San Juan Capistrano. It was 

founded in 1776, the 
year of our Declaration 
of Independence, but in 
18 12 it was destroyed 
by an earthquake, the 
massive towers and 
noble arch falling in on 
the Indians, who were 
assembled in the church 
for morning prayers. 
The church has never 




Restored Part of San Juam 
Capistrano Mission 



Many of them were killed 
been rebuilt. 

It is Christmas Day when we reach San Gabriel, 
the next station on El Camino Real. Inside the great 
cactus fence which incloses the square about the mis- 
sion we see a strangely mixed company, — Indians in 
their best clothes, their faces shining from a liberal use 
of mission soap and water ; soldiers in their leather suits 
freshened up for the holiday ; a few ranchmen in the 
gay dress of the times, riding beautiful horses; women 
and girls each brilliant in a bright-colored skirt with 



CALIFORNIA MISSIONS 



97 



shawl or scarf gracefully draped over head and 
shoulders. 

The Christmas Day morning service, held at four 
o'clock and known by the common people as the Rooster 
Mass, is long since over. The crowd is now gathered 
for the Pastorel, which, like the miracle plays of the 
Middle Ages, is a drama with characters taken from 
the Bible. 

First to appear on the scene is an orchestra composed 
of young Indians playing vioUns, bass viols, reeds, flutes, 
and guitars. Closely following come the 
actors, representing San Gabriel 
and attendant angels, Satan, Blind 
Bartimeus, and a company of 
shepherds. The entertainment is 
very simple. There is the an- 
nouncement of the birth of the 
Savior, the adoration of the babe, 
and the offering of gifts. The 
play concludes with a protracted 
struggle between San Gabriel and 
Satan for the possession of Blind 
Bartimeus, in which the saint 
finally comes off victor while the orchestfa plays lively 
music. After the Pastorel there are games, dancing, 
and feasting. Every one seems happy, and it is with 
regret that we leave the gay scene. 

Through the hills to the north, across the Arroyo 
Seco, not dry now, but a swift stream turbulent from 
the winter rains, we journey on. We pass Eagle Rock, 
a great bowlder high upon the green hillside, one of the 




-^^Mi 



Bells of San Gabriel 
Mission 



CALIFORNIA MISSIONS 



99 



landmarks of the region, and enter the valley of the 
Los Angeles River. After traveling for several hours, 
we come to a large plantation of trees, vines, and grain- 
fields, in the midst of which lies the mission of San Fer- 
nando. Its land extends for miles on every side and is 
exceedingly fertile. In front of the beautiful cloisters, 
under tall and stately palm trees, a fountain sends high 
its sparkling water, which falls back with pleasant tinkle 
into a basin of carved stone. 

When we reach San Buenaventura, the next mission 
on our route, we find priests and Indians exceedingly 
busy, for word has come from Monterey that a Yankee 
trading vessel will soon sail for the south, and cattle 
must be killed and the fat rendered into tallow for the 
market. As hides and tallow are about the only com- 
modities the padres have for sale, this is an important 
event. Indians tend the caldrons of bubbling grease, 
and keep up the fires under the kettles. When the tal- 
low is slightly cooled, they pour it into sacks made from the 
skins of animals. These, when filled with the hardened 
tallow, look as though each again held a plump beast. 

Traveling up the coast we come one afternoon to 

A golden bay 'neath soft blue skies 
Where on a hillside creamy rise 
The mission towers whose patron saint 
Is Barbara — with legend quaint. 

Here spring is merging into summer, and we are in 
time to see the ceremony which closes the wheat har- 
vest. The workmen gather the last four sheaves from 
the field, and, fastening them in the form of a cross, 
carry them, followed by a long procession of dusky 



100 THE CROSS OF SANTA FE 



the bells b 

1^. 



reapers, up the ascent to the church. As they approach, 

the bells burst out in a joyous peal, and from the mission 

doors the padres come forth, one bearing a 

cross, another the banner of the Virgin. 

A choir of Indian boys follows, chanting a 

hymn. All advance slowly down the avenue 

fto meet the sheaf bearers, then countermarch to 
the church, where the harvest festival is celebrated. 
Passing by other missions, we must close our 
journey with a visit to San Carlos, the Monterey 
mission, most prominent of all in the history of 
the church and state. It was from the first the 
special charge of Padre Junipero Serra, and, at the time 
we see it, his monument as well; for in it at last his 
weary body was laid to rest. Beside him later were 
laid his two friends, Francisco Palou and Juan Crespi, 
to whose writings we are indebted for much of our 
knowledge of Junipero Serra and his great work. In 
1813, with its graceful arched front and two towers, 
San Carlos was a noble-looking building, but since that 
time one tower has fallen. 

We are reminded, as we look, of the scene when Juni- 
pero lay dying. Ever since morning the grief-stricken 
people had been waiting, listening for the news from the 
sick room. When the tolHng of the bell announced 
that the beautiful life was ended, crowds came weeping 
and lamenting, anxious to see again the beloved face. 

It was with great difficulty that the Indians could be 
kept from tearing the padre's robe from his body, so 
earnestly did they desire to possess some relic of the 
father they had loved so long. 



CALIFORNIA MISSIONS lOI 

Here we notice the daily life of the Indian, which 
(in 1813) is the same at all the missions. At sunrise 
comes the sound of the bells calling to the morning 
prayers, and we see the natives hurrying to the church. 
After service they gather for breakfast of mush and 
tortillas. As the flocks and herds have increased, meat 
forms part of the daily food, sometimes from the freshly 
killed beeves, but generally in a dried state called carne 
seco. After breakfast the workers go in groups to their 
various employments. Dinner is served at eleven, and 
they have a resting period until two. Then work is 
again taken up and continued until an hour before sunset, 
when the bells call to evening prayer. Supper follows 
the evening service, after which the Indians can do as 
they like until bedtime. We see some engaged in a game 
of ball. Many are squatted on the ground playing 
other games, — gambling, we suspect. In one group 
there is dancing to the music of vioHn and guitar. 
There is laughter and chattering on all sides, and to us 
they seem happy, at least for the time. 

The life led by the Indians at the missions was not 
generally a hard one. No doubt when they first came, 
or were brought, into the settlements, from their free 
wild life, they found it harder to keep the regular hours 
of the missions than to perform the work, w^hich was 
seldom very heavy. When disobedient or lazy, they 
were punished severely, judging by the standards of 
to-day, but really no harder than was at that time the 
custom in schools and in navies the world over. When 
the soldiers came in contact with the natives, there was 
generally cruel treatment for the latter. But as far 

B. CAL. — 7 








102 THE CROSS OF SANTA FE 

as possible the padres stood between their charges and 
the soldiers, always placing the mission as far from the 
presidio as the safety of the former would allow. 

At San Diego, about five years after its settlement, 
wild Indians surprised the mission guard, and killed the 
padre and several of the converted Indians 
in a most cruel manner. The Spanish gov- 
ernment gave orders that the murderers 
should be taken and executed and this mission 
abandoned ; but Padre Junipero begged so 
hard for the culprits, who, he said, knew no better, 
having no knowledge of God, that he was finally allowed 
to have his way. Gentleness and patience won the day; 
not only the Indians /^>-x(^ who made the attack 
were converted, but mi^M^ many more of their 
tribe, and the mission became a flourishing settlement. 
There was once a rebellion among the Santa Clara and 
San Jose Indians, led by a young convert from Santa 
Clara, which required soldiers from Monterey to put 
down. Generally, however, the mission life was peace- 
ful, the Indians being fond of their padres. 

When Mexico became free from Spain, no more 
money was sent up to pay the soldiers or run the gov- 
ernment in Upper California, and for a long time the 
missions advanced the money for the expenses of the 
government. 

After a time the new priests who came up from Mexico 
were not generally men of such education and noble 
character as the early mission padres. They cared less 
for missionary work, and were not so energetic. Their 
influence was not always good for the Indians, who 



CALIFORNIA MISSIONS 103 

quickly saw the difference between them and their old 
padres. They had Httle confidence in the newcomers, 
so at the few missions where such as these were in 
charge the Indians were disobedient, and received harsh 
punishments from the padres ; and trouble followed. 

In 1833 the Mexican government decided to confirm 
the mandate issued by Spain several years before in 
regard to the breaking up of the mission settlements. 
By this law each Indian was to have his own piece of land 
to own and care for. He was to be no longer under the 
control of the church, but to be his own master Hke any 
other citizen. As for the padres, they were to give up their 
wealth and lands, and leave for other missionary fields. 
That this would create a great change in California all 
realized ; still it was no new idea, but the plan Spain had 
in mind when the missions were first founded. The mis- 
take was in supposing that it was possible for a people to 
rise in so short a time from the wild life of the Califor- 
nia Indian to the position of self-supporting citizens in 
a civilized country. 

When the Indians understood this order, some were 
pleased and, like children when freed from restraint, 
ceased to work and became troublesome. Many, how- 
ever, when they found that the padres were to leave them, 
became very unhappy ; some, it is said, even died from 
homesickness for the mission and the padre. One 
committed suicide. 

It was soon seen that they were not fitted to look 
after themselvesv Only a few years had passed since 
they were savages, knowing nothing of civiUzed life, 
and they still needed some one to guide them. They 



104 THE CROSS OF SANTA FE 

not only began to drink and gamble, but were cheated 
and ill-treated on all sides, until many of them became 
afraid of living in towns and went back to wild life. 
For this they were no longer fitted, and they suffered 
so much from hunger and cold that great numbers of 
them died. 

Because the Indians were not capable of caring for 
themselves at the time of the secularization of the 
missions, the padres are often severely blamed. It is 
said that they tried to keep the natives without knowl- 
edge, in fact something Hke slaves. But the truth is 
that the padres taught them by thousands, not only to 
cultivate the soil, to irrigate wisely, to raise domestic 
cattle, but to work at every trade that could be of use 
in a new country. They were encouraged to choose 
from among themselves alcaldes, or under officers of 
the mission. In this way every inducement was given 
to the Indian showing himself capable of self-control, 
to rise to a prominent position in his little world, 
where he generally ruled his fellow-workmen wisely 
and kindly. 

Added to this, the Indians acquired, through the 
teaching and example of the padres, a religion that has 
lasted through generations. The breaking up of the 
mission settlements scattered the Indians through the 
country, many of them going back to the wild hfe in 
the forest and mountains, where they no longer had any 
religious instructions. Yet to-day, after all the years 
that have passed, there are few Indians from San Diego 
to San Francisco who do not speak the language of the 
padres and follow, though it may be but feebly, the 



CALIFORNIA MISSIONS I05 

teaching of the CathoUc faith, the " Santa Fe " of the 
padres. 

Some of the mission buildings, many of the flocks, 
and much of the land fell into the hands of men who 
had no possible right to them. Orchards and vine- 
yards were cut down, cattle killed and stolen 
and there was only ruin where a short time 
before there had been thousands of busy 
people leading comfortable lives. Soon the 
churches were neglected and began to 
crumble away, bats flew in and out of the 
broken arches, squirrels chattered fearlessly 
in the padre's dining room, and the only 
human visitor was some sad-hearted Indian worshiper, 
slipping timidly into the desolate building to kneel 
alone before the altar where once 

Sweet strains from dusky neophytes 
Rose up to God in praise, 
When life centered Vound tiie missions 
In the happy golden days. 




CHAPTER V 



PASTORAL DAYS 




Lm S.j OR hundreds of years poets have 
M ^ ■^, written and singers have sung of 

— — =*~^ the loveliness of a country life, 
where there is no gathering together of the inhabitants 
in great cities, no struggle to make money, where the 
people live much out of doors, are simple in their 
tastes, healthy and happy. 

These dreams of an ideal life the Spanish-speaking 
settlers of early California made real. In this land of 
balmy airs, soft skies, and gentle seas there lived, in 
the old days, a people who were indifferent to money, 
who carried their religion into their daily pleasures and 
sorrows, were brotherly toward one another, contented, 
beautiful, joyous. 

About the time that the mission of San Francisco 
was founded, the Spanish government decided to lay 
out two towns, or pueblos, where it was thought the 
fertile character of the soil would lead the settlers to 
raise grain and other supplies, not only for themselves 

1 06 



CALIFORNIA PUEBLOS lO/ 

but for the people of the presidios. Up to this time 
a large part of the food had been brought, at a con- 
siderable cost, from Mexico. 

We know that the governor, Felipe de Neve, chose 
the town sites with care, for in the whole state there 
are nowhere more beautiful and fertile spots than San 
Jose, near the southern end of San Francisco Bay, and 
Los Angeles, near the famous valley of the San Gabriel 
River. In founding these two pueblos, and a third 
which was located where Santa Cruz now stands, the 
plan pursued was interesting and somewhat different 
from the methods of settlement on the eastern coast 
of our country. 

First there was chosen a spot for the plaza, or central 
square, care being taken that it was not far from good 
grazing land suitable for the settlers' stock. Around the 
plaza, lots were set apart for the courthouse, town hall, 
church, granaries, and jail. Next were the lots for the 
settlers, who each had, besides his home spot, several 
acres of farming land with water, and the right to use 
the pasture lands of the town. To each family was 
given, also, two horses, two cows, two oxen, a mule, sev- 
eral goats, sheep, chickens, farming implements, and a 
small sum in money. 

Instead of asking tax money of the town people, some 
of the land was reserved as public property to be rented 
out, the proceeds to be used for the expenses of the gov- 
ernment. Many people believe that this is the wisest 
plan man has yet discovered for managing the expenses 
of a city, town, or country. 

Los Angeles had for many years a large amount of 



I08 PASTORAL DAYS 

this land near the center of the town, belonging to 
the city government. Gradually it was taken up by 
settlers or appropriated by officials until, when the 
place grew large and thriving, it was found that the 
land had become private property; and finally the city 
had to pay large sums for parks and land for public 
buildings. 

Each pueblo was ruled by an alcalde, or mayor, and 
council, chosen by the people. To advise with these 
officers, there was a commissioner who represented the 
governor of the country. During the first few years 
the pueblo was governed largely by the commissioner. 
Presidios, which were, at first, forts with homes for the 
commander, officers, soldiers, and their famihes, and 
were ruled by the commanding officer or comandante, 
gradually became towns ; and then they, too, had their 
alcalde and council. There were four presidios — Mon- 
terey, San Francisco, San Diego, and Santa Barbara. 

In spite of all the gifts of free land, stock, and money, 
it was hard to secure a suitable class of settlers. Many 
of those who came up from Mexico to live in the pueb- 
los were idle or dissipated, and nearly all uneducated. 
When, after several years, a Spanish officer was sent 
down from Monterey to convey to the Los Angeles 
settlers full title to their lands, he found that not one 
of the twenty-four heads of families could sign his 
name. Later a much better class of people came into 
the country — men of education, brave, hardy mem- 
bers of good Spanish families, who obtained grants of 
land from the government, bought cattle from the mis- 
sion herds, and began the business of stock raising. 



RANCHOS AND RANCHEROS 



109 



This was the beginning of the pastoral or shepherd 
Hfe. Each rancho was miles in extent, its cattle and 
horses numbered by thousands. The homes were gen- 
erally built around a court into which all the rooms 
opened, and were constructed of adobe bricks such as 
were used at the missions. In the better class of homes 
several feet of the space in the courtyard next the wall 
were covered with tile roofing, forming a shaded veranda, 







De la Guerra Mansion, the Oldest in Santa Barbara 



where the family were accustomed to spend the leisure 
hours. Here they received visitors, the men smoked 
their cigaritos, and the children made merry. In the 
long summer evenings sweet strains of Spanish music 
from violin and guitar filled the air, and the hard 
earthen floor of the courtyard resounded to the tap-tap 
of high-heeled slippers, the swish of silken skirts, and 
the jingle of silver spurs, as the young people took part 
in the graceful Spanish dances. 



no PASTORAL DAYS 

It was no small matter to rule one of these great 
households. La Patrona (the mistress) was generally 
the first one up. " Before the sun had risen," said a 
member of one of the old families, " while the linnets 
and mocking birds were sounding their first notes, my 
mother would appear at our bedside. * Up, muchachos, 
up, muchachas, and kneel for your Alba ! ' The Alba 
was a beautiful prayer of thanksgiving for care during 
the night, with a plea for help through the dangers 
and temptations of the day. No excuse for lying 
abed was accepted ; up, and on the floor we knelt, then 
she passed on to where the mayordomo, or foreman, 
and his men were gathering in the courtyard. Here, 
too, was the cook with the Indian maids, busy making 
tortillas for the morning meal. * Your Albas, my 
children,' my mother would say in her clear, firm 
voice. Down would drop mayordomo, vaqueros, cook, 
and Indian girls, all devoutly reciting the morning 
prayer. 

" After their prayer the children might, if they chose, 
return to their beds, but before sleep could again over- 
take them there would probably come from a distant 
room the voice of their aged grandfather asking them 
questions from the Spanish catechism. 

" ' Children, who made you ? ' he would call in a 
quavering voice. 

" A chorus of small voices would sing-song in re- 
sponse, * El Dios ' [God]. 

" Again he would question, ' Children, who died for 
you ? ' 

"Again the reply, * El Dios,' 




EARLY RANCH LIFE III 

" By the time the questions were all answered there 
was no chance for more sleep." 

Nothing was taken with the morning coffee but the 
tortilla. This was a thin cake made of meal from corn 
ground by Indian women who used for the grinding 
either a stone mortar and pestle, or a metate. The 
metate was a three-legged stone about 
two feet in length and one in breadth, 
slightly hollowed out in the ,1^ 

center ; grain was ground in ^^^ 
this by rubbing with a smaller w 
stone. It took a great num- ,^ ' '\ -, — ^ 7i { 
ber of tortillas to serve the 
large household. One Indian 
maid, kneeling beside a large white stone which served 
as table, mixed the meal, salt, and water into balls of 
dough. These she handed to another girl, who spatted 
them flat and thin by tossing them from one of her 
smooth bare arms to the other until they were but a 
little thicker than a knife blade. The 
cook then baked them on a hot dry 
stone or griddle, turning them over and 
over to keep them from burning. 

El Patron (the master) usually rose 
early, and after his coffee, put on hi: 
high, wide-brimmed sombrero, and, 
attended by his sons, if they were 
old enough, and his mayordomo, 
rode over his estate, looking after Vaquero 

the Indian vaqueros and workmen. One gentleman, a 
member of a fine Spanish family which lived in the 




112 PASTORAL DAYS 

southern part of the state, used to ride out with his 
sixteen sons, all of whom were over six feet in height. 
Generally the families were large, often comprising 
twelve children or more. These made merry house- 
holds for the little people. 

After breakfast it was the duty of the mistress to set 
the host of Indian girls to their tasks. The padres were 
always glad to let the young Indian girls from the 
mission go into white families where there was a wise 
mistress, that they might be trained in both religious 
and domestic duties. Going to the gate of the court- 
yard, the Patrona would call, " To the brooms, to the 
brooms, muchachas," adding, if it were foggy, " A 
very fine morning for the brooms, little ones;" and 
out would come running a cluster of Indian girls carry- 
ing each a broom. At the work they would go, sweeping 
as clean as a floor the courtyard and ground for a large 
space about the house. 

Next they flocked to the sewing room, often sixteen 
or eighteen of these girls, to take up their day's 
work under the mistress's eye. Some made garments 
for the ranch hands, those who were better work- 
women attended to the making of clothing for the 
family, while the girls who were the most skillful 
with the needle fashioned delicate, fine lace work and 
embroidery. 

The children were seldom indoors unless it rained. 
There were no schools ; there were few ranches where 
there were teachers, and the fathers and mothers gen- 
erally had their hands too full to devote themselves to 
their children's education, so in the early days it was 



EARLY RANCH LIFE II3 

all playtime. Later, schools were started for boys, and 
dreadful places they were. 

As General Vallejo describes them, they were gen- 
erally held in a narrow, badly lighted room, with no 
adornment but a large green cross or some picture of 
a saint hanging beside the master's table. The master 
was often an old soldier in fantastic dress, with ill-tem- 
pered visage. The scholar entered, walked the length 
of the room, knelt before the cross or picture, recited 
a prayer, then tremblingly approached the master, say- 
ing, "Your hand, Senor Maestro," when with a grunt 
the hand would be extended to him to be kissed. Little 
was taught besides the reading of the primer and the 
catechism. 

Ranch boys early learned to ride, each having his own 
horse and saddle. Every year there was a rodeo, or 
*' round-up," held in each neighborhood, 
where cattle from all the surroundino: 
ranches were driven to one point for 
the purpose of counting the animals 
and branding the young. Each 
stock owner had to be there 
with all the men from his 
ranch who could ride, nor 
must he forget his branding 
irons. These brands were re- 
corded in the government book 
of the department, and any one changing the form of 
his iron in any manner without the permission of the 
judge was guilty of a crime. 

To the boys the rodeo was the most interesting time 




14 



PASTORAL DAYS 



of the whole year. The coming of the strange herds- 
and vaqueros, the counting and the separating of the 
animals, and the branding of the young stock made a 
period of excitement and fun. Here was offered a 
chance for the display of good horsemanship. Some- 
times as the cattle were being gradually herded into a 




Branding Stock, Vai.lejo Rancho 

From an old sketch. 

circular mass, an unruly cow or bull would suddenly 
dart from the drove and run away at full speeds A 
vaquero on horseback would immediately dash after the 
animal, and, coming up with it, lean from the saddle 
and seizing the runaway by the tail, spur his horse for- 
ward. Then by a quick movement he would give a 
jerk and suddenly let go his hold, when the animal 
would fall rolling over and over on the ground. By the 
time it was up again it was tamed. Many a boy earned 
his first praise for good riding at a rodeo. 



EARLY RANCH LIFE 1 15 

Nowhere in the world were there better and more 
graceful riders. Horses used for pleasure were fine, 
spirited animals. The saddle and the bridle were gen- 
erally handsomely inlaid with silver or gold. A Cali- 
fornia gentleman in fiesta costume, mounted on his 
favorite horse, was a delight to the eyes. His hat, wide 
in the brim, high and pointed in the crown, was made 
of soft gray wool and ornamented with gold or silver 
lace and cord, sometimes embroidered with rubies and 
emeralds until it was very heavy and exceedingly valu- 
able. His white shirt was of thin, embroidered muslin, 
and the white stock, too, was of thin stuff wrapped 
several times around the neck, then tied gracefully in 
front. The jacket was of cloth or velvet, in dark colors, 
blue, green, or black, with buttons and lace trimmings 
of silver or gold, often of a very elaborate design. 
About the waist was tied a wide sash of soft material 
and gay color, the ends hanging down at the side. The 
breeches were of velvet or heavy cloth, dark in color, 
save when the rider was gay in his taste, then they 
might be of bright tints. They either ended at the 
knee, below which were leggings of deerskin, or fitted the 
figure closely down to just above the ankle, where they 
widened out and were slashed at the outer seam, show- 
ing thin white drawers, which puffed prettily between 
the slashes. A gentleman in Los Angeles still has the 
trimmings for such a suit, consisting of three hundred 
and fifty pieces of silver filigree work. 

Every one seemed to live out of doors, and though 
the ranchos were widely scattered, there was much vis- 
iting and social gayety. All who could, traveled on 



ii6 



PASTORAL DAYS 



horseback; while the mother of the family, the chil- 
dren, and old people used the clumsy carreta with its 
squeaking wheels. 

One of the prettiest sights was a wedding procession 
as it escorted the bride from her home to the mission 
church. Horses were gayly caparisoned, and the riders 
richly dressed. The nearest relative of the bride car- 
ried her before him on the saddle, across which hung 
a loop of gold or silver braid for her stirrup, in which 
rested her little satin-shod foot. Her escort sat behind 
her on the bearskin saddle blanket. Accompanying 
the party were musicians playing guitar and violin, each 
managing horse and instrument with equal skill. 

The California woman generally wore a full skirt of 
silk, satin, wool, or cotton, a loose waist of thin white 
goods, and, in cold weather, a short 
bolero jacket of as rich material as could 
f^^ be obtained. A bright-colored ribbon 
>^r served for a sash, and a lace handker- 
chief or a muslin scarf was folded over the 




shoulders and neck. In place of bonnet 
and wrap a lace or silk shawl, or a narrow 
scarf called a rebosa, was gracefully draped 
over the head and shoulders. 

Children were dressed like the older peo- 
ple, and very pretty were the girls in their low-necked, 
short-sleeved camisas or waists, and full gay skirts, 
their hair in straight braids hanging down over the 
shoulders. The short breeches, pretty round jackets, 
and gay sashes were very becoming to the boys. 

At night the daughters of the house, big and Httle, 



EARLY RANCH LIFE 11 7 

were locked into their rooms by their mother, the father 
attending in the same manner to the boys. In the morn- 
ing the mother's first duty was to unlock these doors. 

Various games were played. Blindman's buff was a 
great favorite for moonhght nights. There was also a 
game called cuatrito, in which the players threw bits 
of stone at a mark drawn on the ground at a certain 
distance. 

" In my time," said a prominent Californian of to-day, 
"we used to play this game with golden slugs instead 
of stones ; there was always a basket of slugs sitting 
in the corridor beside the parlor door. We liked them 
because they carried well, and we thought it nothing un- 
usual to use them as playthings. They were abundant 
in most of the houses ; my mother and her friends used 
them as soap dishes in the bedrooms. 

" In the spare rooms was always a little pile of money 
covered by a napkin, from which the visitor was ex- 
pected to help himself if he needed. We would have 
considered it disgraceful to count the guest money." 

*' Our parents were very strict with us," said another 
Californian, *'much more so than is the custom to-day. 
Sometimes while the parents, brothers, and sisters were 
eating their meal, a child who was naughty had for 
punishment to kneel in one corner of the dining room 
before a high stool, on which was an earthen plate, a 
tin cup, and a wooden spoon. It was worse than a 
flogging, a thousand times. As soon as the father 
went out, the mother and sisters hastened to the sor- 
rowful one and comforted him with the best things from 
the table." 

B. CAL. — 8 



Ii8 



PASTORAL DAYS 



The clothes were not laundered each week, but were 
saved up often for several weeks or even a month or 
two, and then came a wash-day frolic. Imagine wash 
day looked forward to as a delightful event! So it 
was, however, to many California children. Senorita 
Vallejo, in the Century Magazine (Vol. 41), thus de- 
scribes one of these excursions : — 

" It made us children happy to be waked before sun- 
rise to prepare for the ' wash-day expedition. ' The night 
before, the Indians had soaped the clumsy carreta's 
great wheels. Lunch was placed in baskets, and the 




gentle oxen were yoked to the pole. We climbed in 
under the green cloth of an old Mexican flag which was 
used as an awning, and the white-haired Indian driver 
plodded beside with his long oxgoad. The great piles 
of soiled linen were fastened on the backs of horses led 
by other servants, while the girls and women who were 
to do the washing trooped along by the side of the 
carreta. Our progress was slow, and it was generally 
sunrise before we reached the spring. The steps of the 
carreta were so low that we could climb in or out with- 
out stopping the oxen. The watchful mother guided 
the whole party, seeing that none strayed too far after 




EARLY RANCH LIFE II9 

flowers, or loitered too long. Sometimes we heard the 
howl of coyotes and the noise of other wild animals, 
and then none of the children were allowed to leave the 
carreta. 

" A great dark mountain rose behind the spring, and 
the broad, beautiful valley, unfenced and dotted with 
browsing herds, sloped down to the bay [of 
San Francisco]. We watched the women 
unload the linen and carry it to the spring, 'y 
where they put home-made soap on the 
clothes, dipped them in the spring, and 
rubbed them on the smooth rocks until they 
were white as snow. Then they were spread out to dry 
on the tops of the low bushes growing on the warm, 
windless southern slopes of the mountain." After a 
happy day in the woods came " the late return at 
twiHght, when the younger children were all asleep in 
the slow carreta and the Indians were singing hymns 
as they drove the linen-laden horses down the dusky 
ravines." 

As at the missions, soon the ranchos, little was raised 
for sale save hides and tallow from the cattle. It was 
not the fault of the settlers that, living in so fertile a 
country, they made so little use of its productiveness. 
Spain's laws in regard to trade were made entirely in 
the interests of the mother country, the settlers of 
New Spain, especially of Alta California, having no 
encouragement to raise more than they needed for use 
at home. They could not sell their produce to ships 
from foreign countries, for the penalty for that was 
death to the foreigner and severe punishment for the 



120 



PASTORAL DAYS 



colonist. All trade had to be carried on in Spanish 
vessels, and it was forbidden to ship olive oil, wine, or 
anything that was raised or made in the home country. 
As California and Spain were much alike in climate and 
soil, this law really stopped all outside trade except 
that arising from cattle. 

After the territory became a Mexican province, the 
rules were not so severe in regard to foreign trade, 
and finally the New England vessels freely entered the 
ports by paying certain duties to the government. 

To the young people upon the ranchos the arrival 
of a trading vessel was a great event. If the port was 

not far from the house, 
the Patrona and the 
young ladies sometimes 
went on board to select 
for themselves from the 
miscellaneous cargo the 
things they desired ; but 
as they were generally 
afraid of the water, espe- 
cially of trusting them- 
selves in the ship's boats, the father and boys often 
represented the family on such occasions. 

When news arrived that a ship was coming down the 
coast, elder sisters became very kind and attentive to 
younger brothers, who accepted panocha (a coarse 
brown sugar cast in square or scalloped cakes) and other 
gifts contentedly, knowing well they would be expected 
to " coax Father " to buy the ring, sash, necklace, or 
fan which the good sister particularly desired. Often a 




Old Spanish House 

South Veranda, Camulos, Ramona's Home 



TRADE 121 

ranchero would go down to the harbor with ten or fifteen 
ox carts loaded with hides, skins, and tallow, and return 
with ranch implements, furniture, dishes, sugar, other 
food, clothes, and ornaments of all kinds. Such laugh- 
ing, chattering, and excitement as there was when the 
squeaking ox carts came into the courtyard ! The 
whole household, from the Patrona and her guests 
to the Indian mothers with their children from the 
kitchen precincts, gathered to watch the slow unloading 
of the purchases. Slow, indeed, seemed the process 
to the eager children of the family. Except on horse- 
back for a short dash, the Californian never hurried. 
For a journey the usual gait was a little jog trot, 
hardly faster than a walk. 

Senorita Vallejo, in the Ccntiny Magazine, describes 
the loading of a ship's cargo : *' The landing place for 
the mission of San Jose was at the mouth of a salt water 
creek several miles away. When a trading vessel en- 
tered San Francisco Bay, the large ship's boat would be 
sent up this creek to collect the hides and tallow ; but if 
the season was a wet one, the roads would be too bad 
for the ox carts ; then each separate hide was doubled 
across the middle and placed on the head of an Indian. 
Sometimes long files of Indians might be seen, each 
carrying hides in this manner, as they trotted across the 
wide, flat plains or pushed their way through the little 
forest of dried mustard stalks to the creek mouth." 

No such thing was known as a Californian breaking 
his word in regard to a debt. Yankee ship owners 
trusted him freely. Once, when a ship was in port, the 
captain left it for a little while in charge of the clerk 



122 PASTORAL DAYS 

whose business it was to sell the goods, but who had 
never been in California before and knew nothing of its 
customs. Down to the shore came a ranchero attended 
by servants and ox carts. He came on board and 
bought many things, intending to pay later with hides 
and tallow which were not then ready. When he 
ordered the goods taken ashore with never a word as 
to payment, the clerk informed him that he must either 
give money or else give some writing saying that he 
would pay. 

Now this Californian, though rich in lands and stock, 
could neither read nor write. When he understood that 
he was being distrusted, he gravely drew from his beard 
a hair, and, handing it to the clerk, said : " Give this to 
your master and tell him it is a hair from the beard of 
Agustin Machado. You will find it sufficient guaran- 
tee." The clerk saw that he had made a mistake, and, 
taking the hair, placed it in the leaves of his note book 
and allowed the goods to be taken away. When the 
captain returned, he was mortified that there had been 
any distrust shown. 

While California was a Spanish province its chief 
ruler was appointed by the home government and was 
always an educated gentleman of good family, generally 
an officer of the army. The coming of a new governor 
was a great event in the colony and was celebrated with 
all possible ceremony and display. 

In 1810 Mexico began its revolt against Spain. In 
California the people were in sympathy with the mother 
country and had no doubt of her final success. For a 
long time they received little news of how the war was 



HARD TIMES 



123 



progressing. They only knew that no more money was 
sent up to pay the soldiers or the expenses of govern- 
ment, that the padres no longer received any income 
from the Pius Fund, that even the trading vessels from 
Mexico upon which they depended for their supplies had 
ceased to come. 

Times became so hard that the local government 
turned for aid to the missions, which had become largely 




The Old Farm Building of the Mission San Miguel 

From an old sketch. 



self-supporting. Many of them were indeed wealthy 
communities, and the padres responded generously to 
the demand for help. For several years they furnished 
food and clothing to the soldiers, and money for the 
expenses of government, for the most of which they 
never received payment. 

Gradually the fine clothes of the Calif ornians wore 



124 PASTORAL DAYS 

out, no vessels arrived from which they could purchase 
more, and again it was the missions which came to the 
rescue. Their cotton and woolen goods were in great 
demand. Indian spinners and weavers were busy from 
morning until night making clothes for the ** gente de 
razon," or "people of reason," which was the term by 
which the white settlers were distinguished from the 
natives. 

In 1822 a vessel came up from the south, bringing to 
the governor official notice that the war had been de- 
cided in favor of Mexico, and that California was there- 
fore a Mexican province. This was disagreeable news 
to the Californians, but after consultation held by the 
governor, his officers, the padre who was the president 
of the missions, and some of the leading citizens, it was 
decided that they were too far away from Spain to be 
able to resist, and that they should take the oath 
to be true to the Mexican government. For the 
padres, who were all Spaniards and loyal to the 
home government, this was a hard thing to do, 
and they never became reconciled to the change. 
From this time California was not so well 
governed. Mexico, which was then an empire 
but soon became a repubUc, had its hands full 
looking after its own affairs, and little attention 
was paid its far-off province. Its best men were 
needed at home, and the governors sent up 
the coast were not always wise or pleasing to the 
people. There were several revolutions with but little 
bloodshed. One governor was sent back to Mexico. 
At one time the Californians declared that theirs was 




CHAPMAN 125 

a free state, and a young man named Alvarado was 
made governor. General Vallejo, who was his uncle, 
was given command of the army. But soon the Cali- 
fornians quarreled bitterly among themselves, so that 
this government did not last long and the territory went 
back under the rule of Mexico. That government, in 
order to have peace in the province, confirmed Alvarado 
and Vallejo in their positions. 

During the war between Mexico and Spain a South 
American pirate paid a visit to the coast of Upper Cali- 
fornia. Monterey was attacked and partly destroyed, 
also the mission of San Juan Capistrano and the rancho 
El Refugio, the home of Captain Ortega, the discoverer 
of San Francisco Bay. In the crew of the pirate ship 
was a young American named Chapman, who had found 
life among his rough associates not so interesting as he 
had hoped it would be, so he deserted, but was taken 
prisoner by the Californians and imprisoned in a canon 
near the present site of Pasadena. Later he was brought 
down to Los Angeles and set at liberty. He found the 
people of the pueblo planning to build a church on the 
plaza, and he told them that if they would let him have 
some Indian workmen he would get some large timbers 
down from the canon. He accompUshed this success- 
fully, and it was considered a wonderful work. The 
stumps of the trees can yet be seen far up on the moun- 
tain side, and the timbers are still in the plaza church. 

Visiting San Gabriel, young Chapman found the 
padres having trouble to keep the flour which they 
ground in their new stone mill from being dampened 
by water from the mill wheel. Knowing something of 



126 



PASTORAL DAYS 



machinery, the American remedied the defect by means 
of a flutter wheel, and there was no more trouble. 

For years the catching of otters for their fur along 
the lagoons and bays about San Francisco and Monterey 
brought considerable money to the northern missions. 
Chapman, finding that the padres of San Gabriel were 
anxious to engage in this trade, built for them the first 
sea-going boat ever constructed in southern California. 
It was a schooner, the various parts of which he made 
inthe workshop of the mission. They were then carried 
down to San Pedro, where he put them together and 
successfully launched the vessel. 

Finally, to close his history, it is recorded of Mr. 
Chapman that he fell in love with the pretty daughter 
of Captain Ortega, whose home he had helped his 
pirate associates to attack, that he married her and lived 
to a good old age. The country had few 
more useful citizens than this capable 
man, the first American to settle in 
the southern part of California. 

With the secularization of the mis- 
sions in 1833-34 came a change in the 
peaceful pastoral life. In each sec- 
^ tion all that was of interest had from 
the first centered around its mission. 
One of the chief pleasures of the early 
Californians was the feast day, " La Fiesta," which 
celebrated a saint's birthday. During the year there 
were many of these festivals. First there were religious 
exercises at the mission church; then in the great square 
there followed dancing, games, and feasting, in which 




Spanish Dance 



DESTRUCTION OF MISSION SETTLEMENTS 12/ 

all classes took some part. These happy church festi- 
vals ceased with the breaking up of the mission settle- 
ments. Some of the Indians disturbed the community 
by disorderly conduct, and the ill treatment and suffering 
of the rest of these simple people caused sorrow and 
dismay in the hearts of the better portion of the settlers. 
There was a wild scramble for the lands, stock, and 
other wealth which had been gathered by the mission- 
aries and their Indian workmen. 

Many of the beautiful churches were sold to people 
who cared nothing for the faith they represented. In 
some, cattle were stabled. The mission bells were silent, 
and many of the mission settlements, once so busy and 
prosperous, were solitary and in ruins. 

Life in the great ranchos still went on much as before, 
but it was no longer so simple and joyous. A change 
had begun, and not many years later, with the coming 
of the Americans at the time of the Mexican war, the 
peaceful, happy life of Spanish California was brought 
to an end. 



CHAPTER VI 



THE FOOTSTEPS OF THE STRANGER 




T no point does the early history of 
California come in contact with that 
of the colonies of the Eastern coast 
of the United States. The nearest 
approach to such contact was in the year 1789, when 
Captain Arguello, commander of the presidio of San 
Francisco, received the following orders from the gov- 
ernor of the province : — 

" Should there arrive at your port a ship named 
Columbia, which, they say, belongs to General Wash- 
ington of the American States, you will take measures 
to secure the vessel with all the people aboard with 
discretion, tact, cleverness, and caution." As the Colum- 
bia failed to enter the Californian port, the Spanish 
commander had no chance to try his wits and guns 
with those of the Yankee captain. 

It would seem as though the Californians lived for a 
time in fear of their Eastern neighbors, since prayers 
were offered at some of the missions that the people be 
preserved from " Los Americanos" ; but after the com- 

128 



LA PEROUSE 



29 




French Flag 



ing of the first two or three American ships, when trade 
began to be estabUshed, there arose the kindUest feeling 
between the New England traders and the Californians. 
The ship Otter, from Boston, which came to the coast 
in 1796, was the first vessel from the United States to 
anchor in a California port. 

La Perouse, in command of a French scientific ex- 
pedition, was the first foreigner of prominence to visit 
CaUfornia. Of his visit, which 
occurred in the fall of 1786, he 
writes in his journal : ** The gov- 
ernor put into the execution of 
his orders in regard to us a 
graciousness and air of interest 
that merits from us the liveliest 
acknowledgments, and the padres 
were as kind to us as the officers. We were invited 
to dine at the Mission San Carlos, two leagues from 
Monterey, were received upon our arrival there Hke 
lords of a parish visiting their estates. The president 
of the missions, clad in his robe, met us at the door of 
the church, which was illuminated as for the grandest 
festival. We were led to the foot of the altar and 
the Te Deum chanted in thanksgiving for the happy 
issue of our voyage." 

La Perouse's account of the country, the people, and 
the missions is of great value in giving us a picture of 
these times. In regard to the Indians he said that he 
wished the padres might teach them, besides the prin- 
ciples of the Christian rehgion, some facts about law 
and civil government, *' Although," said he, "I admit 



I30 



THE FOOTSTEPS OF THE STRANGER 




British Flag 



that their progress would be very slow, the pains which 
it would be necessary to take very hard and tiresome." 
Captain Vancouver, with two vessels of the British 
navy, bound on an exploring voyage round the world, 
was the next stranger to visit 
California. So much did he enjoy 
the courtesy of the Spanish offi- 
cers that when his map of the 
coast came out it was found that 
he had honored his hosts of San 
Francisco and Monterey by nam- 
ing for them two leading capes of 
the territory, one Point Arguello and the other Point Sal. 
As early as 1781 Russia had settlements in Sitka and 
adjacent islands, for the benefit of its fur traders, 
and in 1805 the Czar sent a young officer of his court 
to look into the condition of these trading posts. Count 
Rezanof found the people suffering and saw that unless 
food was brought to them 
promptly, they would die 
from starvation. San Fran- 
cisco was the nearest port, 
and though he knew that 
Spain did not allow trade with 
foreign countries, the Rus- 
sian determined to make the 
attempt to get supplies there. Loading a vessel with 
goods which had been brought out for the Indian trade 
of the north coast, he sailed southward. The story of 
his visit is well told by Bret Harte in his beautiful 
poem, " Concepcion de Arguello." 



^ 

. 




/ 


i\A 




<^%\ 



Russj.-.x Flag 



THE RUSSIANS 131 

Rezanof was warmly welcomed and generously en- 
tertained by Commander Arguello of the presidio of 
San Francisco, but in vain did he try to trade off his 
cargo for food for his starving people. The governor 
and his officers dared not disobey the laws of Spain in 
regard to foreign trade. While they were arguing and 
debating, however, something happened which changed 
their views. The Count fell in love with the com- 
mander's beautiful daughter, Concepcion. Then, as the 
poem has it, — 

"... points of gravest import yielded slowly one by one, 
And by Love was consummated what Diplomacy begun.'"'' 

It seemed to the governor that the man who was to 
be son-in-law in the powerful family of Arguello could 
not be considered as a foreigner, and therefore the law 
need not apply in his case. Thus the Count got his 
ship load of food and sailed away, promising to return 
as soon as possible for his betrothed wife. One of the 
most interesting pictures of early California is the poem 
which tells of this pathetic love story. 

Count Rezanof was so pleased with the beauty and 
fertility of California that his letters interested the Czar, 
who decided to found a colony on the coast. An ex- 
ploring expedition was sent out, and the territory about 
Russian River in Sonoma County was purchased of the 
Indians for three blankets, three pairs of trousers, two \ 
axes, three hoes, and some beads. Fort Ross was the 
main settlement, and was the home of the governor, his 
officers and their families, all accomplished, intelligent 
men and women. Besides the soldiers there were a 




132 THE FOOTSTEPS OF THE STRANGER 

number of mechanics and a company of natives from 
the Aleutian Islands, who were employed by the 
Russians to hunt the otter. Up and down the coast 
roamed these wild sea hunters, even col- 
^,.. ../^:4^ lecting their furry game in San Fran- 
'^^ Cisco Bay and defying the comandante of 
the presidio, who had no boats with which 
to pursue them, and so could do nothing but fume and 
write letters of remonstrance to the governor of Fort 
Ross. Spain, and later Mexico, looked with disfavor 
and suspicion upon the Russian settlement, but the 
people of California were always ready for secret trade 
with their northern neighbors. 

In 1816 Otto von Kotzebue, captain of the Russian 
ship Rnrik, visited San Francisco and was entertained by 
the comandante. Lieutenant Luis Arguello. With Cap- 
tain Kotzebue was the German poet, Albert von Chamisso. 

The Russian captain, with brighter faith and keener 
insight than any other of the early visitors to the coast, 
says of the country : '' It has hitherto been the fate of 
these regions to remain unnoticed ; but posterity will do 
them justice ; towns and cities will flourish where all is 
now desert ; the waters over which scarcely a solitary 
boat is yet seen to glide will reflect the flags of all 
nations ; and a happy, prosperous people receiving with 
thankfulness what prodigal nature bestows for their use 
will dispense her treasures over every part of the world." 

In the writings of Albert von Chamisso can be found 
a most interesting description of his visit. To him is 
due the honor of giving to our Californian poppy its 
botanical name. 




CAPTAIN JOHN SUTTER 1 33 

In 1 84 1, the supply of otter having become exhausted, 
the Russians sold their property and claims about Fort 
Ross to the Swiss emigrant, the genial John Sutter. 
In 1903, through the agency of 
the Landmarks Society, this prop- 
erty and its still well-preserved 
buildings came into the possession 
of the state of California. 

As early as 1826 there were a 

number of foreigners settled in 

Russian Flag 
California. These were mostly 

men from Great Britain or the United States who had 
married California women and lived and often dressed 
like their Spanish-speaking neighbors. Captain John 
Sutter, the Swiss who bought out the Russians of Fort 
Ross, came to California in 1839. He obtained from 
the Mexican government an extensive grant of land 
about the present site of Sacramento, and here he 
erected the famous Sutter's Fort where all newcomers 
were made welcome and, if they desired, given work 
under this kindest of masters. Around the fort, which 
was armed with cannon bought from the Russians, he 
built a high stockade. He gained the good will of the 
Indians and had their young men drilled daily in mili- 
tary tactics by a German officer. 

Governor Alvarado, at the time of his revolution in 
1837, ^^d in his forces, under a leader named Graham, 
a company of wandering Americans, trappers and hunt- 
ers of the roughest type. Although there was no 
real war, and no fighting occurred, yet when Alvarado 
and his party were successful, Graham and his men 

B. CAL. — 9 



134 THE FOOTSTEPS OF THE STRANGER 

demanded large rewards, and because the governor 
would not satisfy them they began to persecute him in 
every way possible. Alvarado says: " I was insulted at 
every turn by the drunken followers of Graham ; when 
I walked in my garden they would climb on the wall 
and call upon me in terms of the greatest familiarity, 
* Ho, Bautista, come here, I want to speak to you.' It 
was ' Bautista' here, ' Bautista' there." 

To express dissatisfaction they held meetings in which 
they talked loudly about their country's getting posses- 
sion of the land, until Governor Alvarado, having good 
reason to beheve that they were plotting a revolution, 
expelled them from the territory and sent them to 
Mexico. 

The United States took up the defense of the exiles 
and insisted on their being returned to California. It 
does not seem that the better class of Americans who 
had been long residents of the country sympathized with 
Graham and his followers, but from this time there were 
less kindly relations between the Californians and the 
citizens of the United States who came into the territory. 

We come now to the story of the conquest. 

At the beginning of the year 1845 the United States 
and Mexico were on the verge of war over Texas, which 
had been formerly a Mexican province, but through the 
influence of American settlers had rebelled, declar- 
ing itself an independent state, and had applied for 
admission to the American Union. Because the ques- 
tion of slavery was concerned in this application, it 
caused intense excitement throughout the United States. 
The South was determined to have the new territory 



THE AMERICANS 1 35 

come in as a slaveholding state, while the men of the 
North opposed the annexation of another acre of slave 
land. 

Eight Northern legislatures protested against its 
admission. Twelve leading senators of the North de- 
clared that "it would result in the dissolution of the 
United States and would justify it." On the other hand, 
the South resolved that " it would be better to be out 
of the Union with Texas than in it without her." The 
South won its point. Texas was admitted, and at 
once a dispute with Mexico arose over the boundary- 
lines, and war at length followed, being brought on in a 
measure by the entrance of United 
States troops into the disputed territory. ^ ' J , 

During the long discussion over \\\ m !P 
Texas the United States was having lu'lim' 
trouble with Great Britain over Oregon, 
which was then the whole country lying 
between the Mexican province of California and the 
Russian possessions on the north coast (now Alaska). 
Before the invention of steam cars and the construction 
of railroads, the Pacific coast region had been thought p^ ^ 
of Httle value. The popular idea was expressed " "^"^^i ^^'X./'f 
by Webster when he said: "What do we want / -'^^ f" t 




of this vast, worthless area, this region of //fWV-^ ^'^'•"' 
savages and wild beasts, of deserts, of shifting ' fji W V/\ m 
sands and whirlwinds of dust, of cactus and *^ ^|\w 
prairie dogs ? " But now the United States was waking 
up, and things looked different. Of Oregon the Ameri- 
cans were determined to have at least a portion. Cali- 
fornia, so far away from Mexico and so poorly governed, 



136 THE FOOTSTEPS OF THE STRANGER 

they would like to take under their protection, — -at least 
the region around the great Bay of San Francisco. 

As early as 1840 the United States government urged 
its consul at Monterey, an American named Larkin, 
secretly to influence the leading Californians to follow 
the example of Texas, secede from Mexico, and join the 
United States, where he was to assure them they would 
receive a brother's welcome. Just as he felt he might 
be successful his plans were overthrown. 

One morning in 1842 there came sailing into Mon- 
terey Bay two American men-of-war. Suddenly, to the 
consternation of those watching from the shore, one of 
the ships was seen to fire upon an outgoing Mexican 
sloop. After making it captive the three vessels pro- 
ceeded to the anchorage. Great was the excitement in 
Monterey. Neither the comandante nor the Ameri- 
can consul could imagine the reason for such strange 
conduct. It was soon explained, however, by the ar- 
rival of a ship's boat bringing an officer who delivered 
to the authorities a demand for the surrender of the 
fort and place to the American commander of the 
Pacific fleet. Commodore Jones, who was on board one 
of the newly arrived vessels. 

The Mexican officials and the officers of the army 
were astonished ; so, too, was the United States consul. 
They knew of no war between these countries. Since 
he had neither men nor arms to resist this strange de- 
mand, Alvarado, who was acting for the absent gov- 
ernor, gave orders to surrender, and the next day the 
Mexican flag and forces gave place to those of the 
United States. 



THE AMERICANS 1 37 

After the ceremony of taking possession, Commodore 
Jones had a talk with the American consul, Mr. Larkin, 
and learned to his dismay that the letters upon which 
he had acted and which indicated that war had been 
declared were misleading, and from the latest news it 
was evident that there was peace between the two 
countries. 

The commodore saw at once that he had made a 
serious mistake, " a breach of the faith of nations," as 
it was called, which w^as liable to involve the United 
States in grave difficulties. How best to undo his rash 
action was now his thought. 

He apologized to the Mexican commander and gave 
back possession of the fort. Next, he had the unhappy 
task of taking down the American flag and replacing it 
with the cactus and eagle banner of Mexico, to which 
the guns of his vessels gave a salute of honor. From 
Monterey he sailed away to San Pedro. There he 
waited while he sent a messenger to Governor Michel- 
torena, who was living in Los Angeles, asking permis- 
sion to call upon him and apologize in person. This 
request was granted, and Commodore Jones and his 
staff came up to Los Angeles, where they were the 
guests of their countryman, Don Abel Stearns, who, as 
he had been working with Consul Larkin to win the 
Californians to the United States, was most anxious to 
undo the mischief of the flag raising. For the benefit 
of this history. Dona Arcadia Bandini, who was the 
beautiful Spanish wife of Mr. Stearns, tells the story 
of the visit : — 

'* We gave a dinner to the governor, the commodore, 



138 THE FOOTSTEPS OF THE STRANGER 

and their attendants. Everything was very friendly ; 
they seemed to enjoy themselves, and the uniforms of 
the two countries were very handsome. On the next 
day but one the governor gave a ball. It was to be at 
his home, which was the only two-story house in Los 
Angeles. To show the Americans how patriotic the 
people of California were, the governor requested in the 
invitations that all the ladies wear white with a scarf of 
the Mexican colors, — red, green, and white. Of course 
we gladly complied, though some of us had to work 
hard to get our costumes ready. 

*'The day of the ball came, but with it came rain, 
such a storm as I never had seen. As it drew toward 
evening the water came down faster and faster. The 
governor had the only carriage in California, and this 
he was to send for the commodore, Mr. Stearns, Isa- 
dora, and myself ; but the poor young officers had to 
walk, and their faces were long when they looked out 
at the rain and then down at their fine uniforms and 
shining boots. 

''Our California horses were not trained to pull loads 
and would not work in the rain, so when the carriage 
came for us it was drawn by a number of the governor's 
Cholo soldiers. We got in quite safely, and it was only 
a short distance we had to go, but as I was getting out 
the wind suddenly changed and down came a torrent of 
water on me. It was clear that I could not go to the 
ball in that condition, but the governor immediately 
ordered the soldiers to pull the carriage back to my 
home, where I soon made another toilet. The ball 
was delightful. The governor and the commodore 



FREMONT 139 

vied with each other in exchanging compHments and 
courtesies." 

It was a sad fact, however, that in spite of apologies, 
dinners, and balls. Consul Larkin now found it difficult 
to persuade his CaUfornia neighbors that the United 
States looked upon them as brothers, and they began 
to regard with suspicion the host of American emigrants 
who were coming into the territory. 

In 1842 Lieutenant Fremont, under orders from the 
United States government, made the first of his wonder- 
ful journeys over deserts and rough mountain ranges 
into the great unknown West. Soon he was to become 
famous, not only in his own country but in Europe, as 
the " Pathfinder," the road maker of the West. Already 
many an Oregon emigrant had blessed the name of 
Fremont for making plain the trail for himself and his 
loved ones. 

In 1846 Captain Fremont, conducting an exploring 
and scientific expedition, entered California with sixty 
men and encamped in the valley of the San Joaquin. 
Later he moved down into the heart of the California 
settlements and encamped on the SaHnas River. Pos- 
sibly, knowing that war would soon be declared between 
his country and Mexico, he had determined to see as 
much of the enemy's position as possible, not caring 
particularly what the Mexican authorities might think. 

As a natural result, General Castro, commander of 
the California forces, objected ; Fremont defied him, 
and there seemed a likelihood of immediate war. 
There was no actual fighting, however, and in a day 
or two Fremont continued his journey toward Oregon, 



140 THE FOOTSTEPS OF THE STRANGER 

He had gone but a little way when he was overtaken 
by a captain of the navy named Gillespie, bringing him 
letters from the officers of the government at Washing- 
ton. Upon reading these, Fremont immediately turned 
about and marched swiftly back to Sutter's Fort, where 
he encamped. Just what orders the messages from 
Washington contained, no one knows ; but it is thought 
that perhaps they informed Fremont that war would be 
declared very soon and that the government would be 
pleased if he could quietly get possession of California. 

If this was so, he had the best of reasons for his later 
actions. If not, then in his eagerness to obtain for his 
country the valuable territory he so well appreciated 
and in his desire to win for himself the honor of gain- 
ing it, he brought on a war that caused the loss of 
many lives and much property, and the growth of a 
feeling of bitterness and distrust between Americans 
and Californians that has not yet entirely passed away. 
Still it is by no means certain that California could 
have been won without fighting, even had Fremont and 
the American settlers been more patient. 

Soon many Americans were gathered about Fre- 
mont's camp ; but though there were a number of 
rumors as to what General Castro was going to do to 
them, there was no action contrary to the previous 
kindly treatment all had received from the hands of the 
CaHfornians. Still the emigrants felt that as soon as 
war was declared an army from Mexico might come up 
which would not be so considerate of them and their 
families as had been their California neighbors. 

Having good reason to feel certain that Fremont 



THE AMERICANS I4I 

would stand back of them if they began the fight, a 
company of Americans attacked one of Castro's officers, 
who, with a few men, was taking a band of horses to 
Monterey. Securing the horses, but letting the men 
who had them in charge get away, they hurried them to 
Fremont's camp, where they left them while they went 
on to Sonoma. Here they made prisoner General 
Vallejo, commander of that department of the territory, 
together with his brother and staff. 

General Vallejo was one of the leading Californians 
of the north, a man of fine character, quiet and conserv- 
ative, generous toward the needy emigrants and fa- 
vorable to annexation with the United States. When 
he saw the rough character of the men surrounding his 
house that Sunday morning, he was at first somewhat 
alarmed. A man named Semple, who was one of the 
attacking party, describing the event in a Monterey paper 
sometime afterward, says: *' Most of us were dressed in 
leather hunting shirts, many were very greasy, and all 
were heavily armed. We were about as rough a looking 
set of men as one could well imagine." When they 
assured the general that they were acting under orders 
from Fremont, he seemed to feel no more anxiety, gave 
up his keys, and arranged for the protection of the 
people of his settlement. He was first taken to Fre- 
mont's headquarters, then for safe keeping was sent 
on to Sutter's Fort. 

Meanwhile the party which had been left in charge of 
affairs at Sonoma chose one of their number, a man 
named Ide, as their leader. Reahzing that they had be- 
gun a war, they felt the need of a flag, and not daring to 



142 



THE P^OOTSTEPS OF THE STRANGER 



use that of the United States, they proceeded to make 
one for themselves. For their emblem they chose the 
strongest and largest of the animals of California, the 
grizzly bear. The flag was made of a Mexican rebosa 
or scarf of unbleached muslin about 



M 




4. 

CALIFORNIA REPV/OLIC \ 



a yard in width and five feet long. 
To the bottom of this they sewed 
a strip of red flannel ; in one corner 
they outlined a five-pointed star, and 
facing it a grizzly bear. These were 
filled in with red ink and under them in black letters 
were the words " California Republic." The tem- 
porary government of the followers of the Bear Flag 
is generally known as the "Bear Flag Republic." 

As soon as it seemed probable that the Californians 
under General Castro were marching to attack the Ameri- 
cans, Captain Fremont joined his countrymen, and from 
that time the United States flag took the place of the 
banner of the bear. A little later Captain Fremont took 
the presidio and port of San Francisco, and to him is 
due the honor of naming beautiful Golden Gate. 

About two weeks after the capture of Sonoma, Com- 
modore Sloat, with two vessels of the United States 
navy, entered the harbor of Monterey. Although he 
had come for the purpose of taking the territory foi his 
country, and had orders to see to it that England did not 
get possession of California ahead of him, yet he had 
been cautioned to deal kindly with the Californians, and 
he hesitated to take decided steps. Ittaok him six days 
to make up his mind, and then he came to a decision 
partly on account of the actions of Fremont and his 



THE CONQUEST OF CALIFORNIA 143 

men. Slowly up the flagstaff on the fort of Monterey 
rose the Stars and Stripes. Unfolded by the sea breeze, 
the beautiful flag of the United States waved again 
over the land of the padres, and this time to stay. A 
few days later Commodore Stockton reached California 
to take command in place of Commodore Sloat, who re- 
turned home. Stockton appointed Fremont commander 
of the American forces on land, and together they 
completed the conquest of the territory. 

It was unfortunate that Commodore Stockton had so 
lately arrived from the East that he did not fully under- 
stand the state of affairs. As he believed the wild 
rumors which, falsely, accused the Californians of 
treachery and cruelty, his proclamations were harsh and 
unjust to the proud but kindly people whom he was con- 
quering. Many of the late historians find much to 
blame in the treatment given by the Americans to the 
people of California. Severity was often used when 
kindness would have had far better effect. 

Los Angeles and San Diego were taken by Stockton 
and Fremont without any fighting, and leaving a few 
troops in the south, both commanders returned to Mon- 
terey. They were soon recalled by the news that the 
people of Los Angeles had risen against the harsh rule 
of Captain Gillespie, who had been left in command; that 
the Americans had surrendered but had been allowed to 
retire to San Pedro, and that all the south was in a state 
of active rebellion. 

Landing at San Pedro, Stockton waited a few days, 
then fearing the enemy was too strong for his forces, 
sailed away to San Diego. Here the Americans re- 




The Old Palms of San Pi-.dro Street, Los Angeles 
144 



THE CONQUEST OF CALIFORNIA 145 

ceived a hearty welcome, and much-needed assistance, 
from the Spanish families of Bandini and Arguello. 

Mr. Bandini escorted a body of the United States 
troops to his home rancho on the peninsula of Lower 
California, where he gave them cattle and other food 
supplies. For this aid to the invaders he was forced to 
remove his family from their home there, and on the 
journey up to San Diego Mrs. Bandini made what was 
probably the iirst American flag ever constructed in 
Cahfornia. As they neared San Diego the officer in 
command discovered that he had neglected to take with 
him a flag. He did not wish to enter the settlement 
without one, and when the matter was explained to Mrs. 
Bandini, who was journeying in a carreta with her maids 
and children, she offered to supply the need. 

From the handbag on her arm came needle, thimble, 
thread, and scissors, and from the clothing of her Httle 
ones the necessary red, white, and blue cloth. Under 
the direction of the young officer she soon had a very 
fair-looking flag, and beneath its folds the party marched 
into the town. That night the band of the flagship 
Congress serenaded Mrs. Bandini in her San Diego 
home, and the next day Commodore Stockton called to 
thank her in person. The flag, it is said, he sent to 
Washington, where it is still to be found with other 
California trophies. 

The most severe battle of the war in the state of 
California was fought on the San Pasqual rancho in 
San Diego County. The forces engaged were those of 
General Andres Pico, who commanded the Californians, 
and General Stephen Kearny, who had marched over- 



146 THE FOOTSTEPS OF THE STRANGERS 

land, entered the territory on- the southwest, and was 
on his way to join Stockton. Hearing that the country 
was conquered and the fighting over, the American 
officer had sent back about two hundred of his men, 
but he was afterward reenforced by Captain Gillespie 
and fifty men sent by Stockton to meet him. Several 
American officers were killed in the battle of San 
Pasqual, and their brave commander severely wounded. 

Commodore Stockton, on his march from San Diego 
to Los Angeles, twice engaged the enemy, once at the 
crossing of the San Gabriel River and once on the 
Laguna rancho just east of the city. The CaUfornians 
behaved with great bravery. All of them were poorly 
armed, many having only lances and no fire-arms, and 
what powder they had was almost worthless ; yet three 
times they dashed upon the square of steadily firing 
United States marines. 

This was the last battle in the territory. The Cali- 
fornians retreated across the hills to the present site of 
Pasadena. Here, at the little adobe house on the banks 
of the Arroyo Seco, they separated. General Flores, 
their commander, was to ride with his staff through 
the stormy night, down El Camino Real toward Mexico. 
General Andres Pico, upon whom devolved the duty 
of surrender, was to ride with his associates to the old 
Cahuenga ranch house, the first station on the high- 
way from Los Angeles to Santa Barbara. There he 
met Captain Fremont, and the treaty was signed which 
closed hostilities. The terms proposed by Fremont 
were favorable for the CaUfornians and did much to 
make way for a peaceful settlement of all difficulties. 



CHAPTER VII 



AT THE TOUCH OF KING MIDAS 





'^^-V„3oi^jfe^^^>u 



T was by chance that gold was dis- 
covered in both northern and south- 
ern CaHfornia, and by chance that 
many great fortunes were made, 

Juan Lopez, foreman of the Httle ranch of St. Francis 
in Los Angeles County, one morning in March, 1842, 
while idly digging up a wild onion, or brodecia, dis- 
covered what he thought lumps of gold cHnging to 
its roots. Taking samples of the metal, he rode down 
to Los Angeles to the office of Don Abel Stearns, who 
recognized it as gold. 

Soon Juan and his companions were busy digging 
and washing the earth and sands in the region where 
the little wild flowers grew. These mines were called 
" placer," from a Spanish word meaning loose or mov- 
ing about, because the metal was loosely mixed with 
sand and gravel, generally in the bed of a stream or in 
a ravine where there had once been a flow of water 
which had brought the gold down from its home in the 
mountains. 

147 



148 AT THE TOUCH OF KING MIDAS 

From these mines Don Abel Stearns sent, in a sail- 
ing vessel round Cape Horn, the first parcel of Cali- 
fornia gold dust ever received at the United States 
mint, and it proved to be of very good quality. 

The San Fernando mines, as they were called, because 
they were on a ranch that had once belonged to San 
Fernando mission, yielded many thousand dollars' 
worth of gold dust. It is on record that one firm in 
Los Angeles, which handled most of the gold from these 
and other mines of southern California, paid out in the 
course of twenty years over two million dollars for 
southern gold. 

The true golden touch, however, was to come in a 
different part of the territory among people of another 
race and tongue. It was to transform California from 
an almost unknown land with slight and scattered pop- 
ulation to a community so rich as to disturb the money 
markets of the world ; a community sheltering a great 
host of people, all young, all striving eagerly for the 
fortunes they had traveled thousands of miles to find. 

After the signing of the treaty of Cahuenga between 
Colonel Fremont and General Pico, the Spanish-speak- 
ing people settled down quietly and peacefully. The 
only disagreements were between the American leaders. 
General Kearny and Commodore Stockton, and between 
Kearny and Fremont, who had been appointed by 
Stockton military governor of the territory. This ap- 
pointment General Kearny disputed. General Vallejo 
tells in one of his letters of having received on the same 
day communications from Kearny, Stockton, and Fre- 
mont, each signing himself commander-in-chief. 



FREMONT 149 

Whoever was right in the quarrel, Fremont was the 
chief sufferer, for General Kearny, after Stockton left, 
ordered him to return East under arrest and at Wash- 
ington to undergo a military trial or court-martial for 
mutiny and disobedience of orders. Although the 
court found him guilty and sentenced him to be dis- 
missed from the army, the President, remembering his 
services in the exploration of the West, and quite pos- 
sibly thinking him not the person most to blame, par- 
doned and restored him to his position. Fremont, feehng 
that he had done nothing wrong, refused the pardon 
and resigned from the army. The next year the new 
President, Taylor, showed his opinion of the matter by 
appointing Fremont to conduct the important work of 
establishing the boundaries between the United States 
and Mexico. 

General Kearny, when he departed for the East, left 
Colonel Mason, of the regular army, as military gov- 
ernor of California. Mason chose as his adjutant, or 
secretary, a young lieutenant named Sherman, who, 
years later, in the Civil War, by his wonderful march 
through the heart of the South, came to be considered 
one of the greatest generals of his time. 

Soon after the Mexican war many settlers were 
gathered about Sutter's Fort and San Francisco Bay. 
There were about two thousand Americans, most of 
them strong, hardy men, all overjoyed that the territory 
was in the hands of the United States and all eager to 
know what would finally be decided in regard to it. 
Reports kept arriving of parties of emigrants that were 
about to start overland for California. 

B. CAL. — 10 



50 



AT THE TOUCH OF KING MIDAS 



" They are as certain to come as that the sun will rise 
to-morrow," said genial Captain Sutter, *' and as the 
overland trail ends at my rancho, I must be ready to 
furnish them provisions. They are always hungry 
when they get there, especially the tired little chil- 
dren, and the only thing for me to do is to build a flour 
mill to grind my grain." 

''Well and good," said James Marshall, one of his 
assistants, an American by birth, a millwright by trade ; 

"but to build a flour mill re- 
<^^ quires lumber, and lumber calls 
for a sawmill." 

"We will build it, too," said 
Sutter. " Take a man and pro- 
visions and go up toward the 
mountains ; there must be good 
places on my land. I leave it 
all in your hands." The place was 
found on a swift mountain stream. 
Near the present site of Coloma, in the 
midst of pine forests, on the water soon to 
yy be so well known as the American River, the 

sawmill was located. Marshall also marked out a 
rough wagon road forty-five miles long down to the 
fort. Captain Sutter was delighted. 

" Set to work as soon as you like, Marshall," he ex- 
claimed. "This is your business." Soon the mill was 
built and almost ready for use. 

" You may let the water into the mill race to-night," 
said Marshall to his men. " I want to test it and also 
to carry away some of the loose dirt in the bed." 




DISCOVERY OF GOLD 15 I 

Down came the water with a rush, carrying off before 
it the loose earth; all night it ran, leaving the race 
with a clean, smooth bed. The next day, Monday, 
January 24, 1848, — wonderful day for California — 
James Marshall went out to look at the mill race to see 
if everything was ready to begin work. 

"To-morrow," thought he, "we will commence sawing, 
and put things through as fast as possible. The men 
are waiting, we have plenty of trees down, there is noth- 
ing to hinder; " but at that moment as he walked beside 
the bed of the tail race he saw some glittering yellow 
particles among its sands. He stopped and picked one 
up. The golden touch had come. 

The following is Marshall's own description as pub- 
Hshed in the Ceiititry Magazine (Vol. 41). "It made 
my heart thump, for I was certain it was gold. Yet it 
did not seem to be of the right color; all the gold coin 
I had seen was of a reddish tinge ; this looked more 
like brass. I recalled to mind all the metals I had seen 
or heard of, but I could find none that resembled this. 
Suddenly the idea flashed across my mind that it might 
be iron pyrites. I trembled to think of it." 

Finally, to make sure, Marshall, like Juan Lopez, 
mounted his horse and rode away to find some one 
with more knowledge than himself. That some one was 
Captain Sutter, who looked in his encyclopedia, probably 
the only one in the territory at that time, and by com- 
paring the weight of the metal with the weight of an 
equal bulk of water found its specific gravity, which 
proved it to be gold. Still Sutter thought that he should 
like better authority. General Sherman, in Memoirs, 



152 AT THE TOUCH OF KING MIDAS 

tells how the news came to Monterey, where he was 
the governor's gay young military secretary : — 

"I remember one day, in the spring of 1848, that 
two men, Americans, came into the office and inquired 
for the Governor. I asked their business, and one 
answered that they had just come down from Captain 
Sutter on special business and they wanted to see Gov- 
ernor Mason in person. I took them in to the colonel 
and left them together. After some time the colonel 
came to his door and called to me. I went in and my 
attention was directed to a series of papers unfolded on 
his table, in which lay about half an ounce of placer 
gold. 

" Mason said to me, * What is that ? ' I touched it and 
examined one or two of the larger pieces and asked, * Is 
it gold ? ' I said that if that were gold it could be easily 
tested, first by its malleability and next by acids. I took 
a piece in my teeth and the metallic lustre was perfect. 
I then called to the clerk, Baden, to bring in an ax and 
hatchet from the back yard. When these were brought, 
I took the largest piece and beat it out flat, and beyond 
doubt it was metal and a pure metal. Still we attached 
little importance to the fact, for gold was known to 
exist at San Fernando at the south and yet was not 
considered of much value." 

About this time some of the business men who had 
settled in the little town of Verba Buena, finding that 
all ships that entered the harbor were sent by their 
owners not to Verba Buena, of which they knew noth- 
ing, but to San Francisco, persuaded the town council to 
change the name of the settlement from Verba Buena 




DISCOVERY OF GOLD 153 

to San Francisco, which was already the name of the 
mission and presidio. 

'' Gold ! Gold ! ! Gold ! ! ! from the American River," 
cried a horseman from the mines, riding down Market 
Street, waving his hat in one hand, 
a bottle of gold dust in the other. 

When words like these dropped 
from the lips of a messenger in 
any of the little communities, the 
result was like a powerful explosion. 
Everybody scattered, not wounded 
and dying, however, but full of life, 
ready to endure anything, risk anything, for the sake 
of finding the precious metal which enables its owner 
to have for himself and those he loves the comfortable 
and beautiful things of the world. 

The result at San Francisco is thus described in one 
of its newspapers of 1848: ''Stores are closed, places 
of business vacated, a number of houses tenantless, me- 
chanical labor suspended or given up entirely, nowhere 
the pleasant hum of industry salutes the ear as of late; 
but as if a curse had arrested our onward course of 
enterprise, everything wears a desolate, sombre look. 
All through the Sundays the little church on the plaza is 
silent. All through the week the door of the alcalde's 
office remains locked. As for the shipping, it is left at 
anchor ; first sailors, then officers departing for the 
mines." 

And how was it at the logging camp where Marshall 
made his great discovery.-' The new sawmill, built with 
such high hopes, was soon silent and deserted. No more 




154 AT THE TOUCH OF KING MIDAS 

logs were cut, and no lumber hauled down for the flour 
mill. There were no men to be found who were willing 
to cut and saw logs, build mills, or put in the spring 
wheat when they might be finding their fortunes at the 
mines. 

The newly arrived emigrants suffered no doubt from 
hunger; maybe the children cried for bread; but most of 
the men, as soon as they had rested a little and 
knew what was going on, got together money 
enough to buy the simple implements of knife, 
I ] pan, pick, and cradle, which were all the tools 
necessary for the easy placer mining of 
those days, and joined the endless pro- 
cession of those who were pushing up toward 
the streams and canons round Sutter's famous sawmill. 

As summer came on, the excitement became intense. 
Not only from the region around San Francisco Bay, but 
from San Diego and Los Angeles, people came flocking 
to the mines. Reports were current of men finding 
hundreds of dollars' worth of gold a day, gaining a for- 
tune in a few weeks. It was almost impossible to hire 
laborers either in San Francisco or on the ranches. 
Even the soldiers caught the gold fever and deserted. 

In the summer, Governor Mason and Lieutenant Sher- 
man visited the mines. Upon their return to Monterey, 
having seen for themselves that many even of the wildest 
rumors were true, they made arrangements to send on 
to Washington official announcement of the discovery. 

How this was accomplished is interesting. A lieuten- 
ant of the army was appointed by the governor for the 
important office, and a can of sample gold was purchased. 



DISCOVERY OF GOLD 155 

The only vessel on the coast ready for departure was a 
boat bound for Peru. On this ship the lieutenant with 
his pot of gold and the governor's report embarked at 
Monterey. He reached the Peruvian port just in time 
to catch the British steamer back to Panama. Crossing 
the Isthmus on horseback, he took a steamer for Kings- 
ton, Jamaica. There he found a vessel just leaving for 
New Orleans. Reaching that city he at once telegraphed 
the news to Washington, trusting it would be in time to 
form part of the President's message. 

On December 5, 1848, the President, in his message 
to Congress, after speaking of the discovery of gold in 
California, said, ''The accounts of the abundance of gold 
in that territory are of such extraordinary character 
as would scarcely command belief but for the authentic 
reports of officers in the public service who have vis- 
ited the mineral districts and drew the facts which they 
detail from personal observation." 

The certainty that the wonderful reports of the gold 
country were true, electrified not only the whole country 
but the whole civilized world. Large numbers of peo- 
ple began immediate preparation for making the over- 
land journey as soon as the weather should permit; 
while others, too impatient to wait, left for California 
by the way of the Isthmus. 

In February, 1849, there arrived at Monterey the 
Panama, the first steamboat to visit the coast. The 
whole population turned out to see and welcome it. The 
Calif ornians as they compared it with the stately frigates 
and ships they had been accustomed to see, exclaimed, 
"How ugly!" Although it was not a beautiful vessel, 



156 AT THE TOUCH OF KING iMIDAS 

its arrival was an event of great importance, for it was 
the first of a line of steamers which were under contract 
to ply monthly between San Francisco and Panama, and 
with its coming began such an immigration as the world 
has seldom known. 

In 1849 nearly twenty-five thousand people came by 
land and almost as "many more by sea, from the States 
alone. There were between thirty and forty thousand 
from other parts of the world. 

San Francisco at the time of the discovery had about 
seven hundred inhabitants, and shortly after only the 
population of a hamlet, because so many had gone to the 
gold fields. Now it suddenly found itself called upon 
to give shelter to thousands of people bound for the 
mines, and many also returning, some successful, others 
penniless and eager to get work at the very high wages 
offered, sometimes as much as thirty dollars a day. 

There were streets to be surveyed, houses and ware- 
houses to be built, lumber and brick to be provided. 
People were living in tents, in brush houses, even in 
shelter made by four upright green poles over which 
were spread matting and old bedding. Hundreds of 
ships lay helpless in the harbor waiting for crews, often 
for men to unload the cargoes. No longer could the 
papers complain of lack of business. The town was 
like a hive, but such a disorderly one as would have 
driven wild any colony of bees. 

All was mud flats or water where are now the water 
front and some of the leading business streets of the 
city. On these flats old unseaworthy vessels were 
drawn up and did duty side by side with rough board 



GROWTH OF SAN FRANCISCO 1 57 

buildings as dwellings and stores. In the rainy seasons 
the streets were lakes of mud where mules and drays 
were sometimes literally submerged. The arrival of 
the mail steamer was the event of the month to this 
host of people so far away from home and loved ones. 
Guns were fired, bells rang to announce the approach 
of the vessel, then there was a wild rush to the post 
ofifice, where the long lines of men, most of them wear- 
ing flannel shirts, wide hats, and high boots, extended 
far down the street. Very high prices were sometimes 
paid, as high even as one hundred dollars, by .a late 
comer to buy from some one lucky enough to be near 
the head of the line a position near the delivery window. 
Then if no letter came, how great was the disappoint- 
ment ! 

One man thus described the mines : — 

" I was but a lad and my party took me along only be- 
cause I had a knack at cooking and was willing to do 
anything in order to see the place where such wonderful 
fortunes were made. It was a hot summer afternoon 
when, crossing a region of low, thinly wooded hills, we 
looked down upon American River ; away to the east 
were high mountain ranges, their peaks, although it was 
still August, snow-tipped. 

" From them came swiftly down the already famous 
river. Its volume was evidently diminished from the 
heat, and along its gravelly bed men were digging the 
sand and gravel into buckets. As I reached them and 
watched them work I was greatly disappointed. It 
seemed like very ordinary dirt they were handling ; I 
saw no gleam of the yellow sands of which I had heard 



158 



AT THE TOUCH OF KING MIDAS 




such stories. I followed one of the men who carried 
the buckets of earth to something that looked very Uke 
our family cradle with the footboard 
knocked out. Where the slats might 
have been there was nailed a piece of sheet 
iron punched iuU of holes. Above this was 
a chute in which the dirt was emptied. The cradle 
was then rocked violently while water was poured over 
its contents. The lighter earth and gravel were carried 
away, while the gold, being heavier, rested either on the 
sheet iron or between the slats on the cradle bottom. 

" Some of the men had no cradle, only a large pan 
made of sheet iron. This pan, when half filled with 
dirt, was sunk in the water and shaken side- 
wise until the dirt and gravel were washed 
away and only heavy grains of gold remained. 
There were enough of these to make 
my eyes open wide. The men who 
had the cradle were making pretty 
steadily from eighteen to twenty 
dollars a day apiece. 

'' After a day or two I visited the 
_ dry diggings. Here I saw things 
that were more astonishing to me 
than anything that I had seen at the 
placer mines. Some men were at work in 
a little canon, and I sat on the bowlder and watched 
them digging into the earth with their knives and pick- 
ing up every few minutes spoons of earth in which 
there were plainly visible little lumps of gold the size 
of a pea. This was considered a rich find ; the men 




PLACER MINING 1 59 

were joyful over their success. Suddenly one of the 
older ones, looking up at me, sang out : — 

" ' Say, Sonny, why do you sit there idle ? Out with 
that bread knife of yours and dig for your fortune. 
Across this ridge is another ravine. It may be like this. 
Try your luck, anyway.' 

*' Somehow, until that moment, it had not entered my 
boyish mind that I might join this great mad race 
for wealth. I sprang to my feet. My heart began to 
pound faster than it did on the glorious day when 
in my boyhood home I had won the mile race at 
the county fair. There was a singing in my ears ; for 
the minute I could scarcely breathe. I had heard of the 
gold fever, and now I had caught it. 

" I dashed up the hillside, fairly rolled down into the 
rocky little valley beyond, and began to dig wildly ; but 
I found only good honest earth, rich noble soil so like 
our fertile bottom lands at home. My spirits began to 
sink, my heart to resume its natural beats. I worked 
half an hour or so without finding any sign, as it was 
called, and began to feel discouraged. In the canon, 
which was very narrow, a large bowlder blocked my 
progress. I determined to dig it loose. This was the 
work of some time, but finally I succeeded in dislodging 
it, and drawing up my legs out of its way watched with 
a youngster's delight its wild dash down the mountain 
side to the stream far below. 

" Slowly I turned to resume my work, but what I saw 
brought me to my feet with a yell. The socket where 
the stone had rested was dotted with yellow lumps of 
gold as big as a pea, some even larger, Down I went 



l6o AT THE TOUCH OF KING MIDAS 

upon my knees and I fell to work with a will — the 
strength of a man seemed in my arms. Off came my 
coat, and spreading it out I scooped the rich dirt into it 
by the handful. I had happened on a pocket, as it was 
called ; a turn in the bed of some old mountain stream. 
The dirt from this when' washed yielded me about five 
hundred dollars, but it was all except cook's wages that 
I ever made at the mines. 

" Before I left the gold fields I saw some small attempt 
at hydraulic mining which later proved so successful. 
From a stream up in a canon some enterprising men 
had built a log flume and connected with it a large hose 
and nozzle they had brought up from the coast. Turn- 
ing the water in this on a dry hill rich in gold deposit, 
they easily and rapidly washed the dirt down into a 
sluice or trough below. This had bars nailed across, 
and water running through carried the dirt away while 
the gold dropped into the crevices between the bars." 
This method of mining and also quartz mining, that is, 
digging gold and other metals from rock, is described 
in another chapter. 

The gold-bearing earth extended along the west slope 
of the Sierra Nevada and their base, from Feather River 
on the north to the Merced River on the south, a 
territory about thirty miles wide by two hundred and 
fifty long. In this district are still some of the richest 
mines in the world. 



CHAPTER Vlir 



THE GREAT STAMPEDE 




E rush of people to the Pacific coast 
after the gold discovery may well 
be called a stampede. The ter- 
rible overland journey, over thousands of miles of In- 
dian country, across high mountains and wide stretches 
of desert, was often undertaken with poor cattle, half 
the necessary supplies of food, and but little knowledge 
of the route. On the other hand, those who preferred 
going by water would embark in any vessel, however 
unsafe, sailing from Atlantic ports to the Isthmus. 

In New York the excitement was especially great. 
Every old ship that could be overhauled and by means 
of fresh paint made to look seaworthy was gayly dressed 
in bunting and advertised to sail by the shortest and 
safest route to California. The sea trip is thus described 
by an elderly gentleman who made the journey when a 
boy of ten : — 

" Together with the news of the discovery of gold 
came also reports of a warm, sunny land which winter 
never visited, where hfe could be spent in the open air, 

i6i 



l62 



THE GREAT STAMPEDE 



— a favorable spot where sickness was almost unknown. 
It was, I think, as much on account of my mother's 
health as to make his fortune that my father decided to 
go to California. The water route was chosen as being 
easier for her. 

" The saying good-by to our relatives had been hard ; 
but by the time we were three miles from home we 
children ceased to grieve, so interested were we in new 
sights and experiences. 

" I had never seen salt water until that morning in 
New York, when we boarded the gayly trimmed brig, the 
Jane Dazvson, which was to carry us to the Isthmus. 
To my sister and myself it was a real grief that our 
vessel had not a more romantic name. We decided to 
call it the Sea Slipper, from a favorite story, and the 
Sea Slipper it has always been to us. 

'* On the deck there were so many unhappy partings 
that we became again downhearted, a feeling which 




was intensified in the choppy seas of the outer bay to 
the utter misery of mind and body. We got ourselves 
somehow into our berths, where, with mother for com- 
pany, we remained for many hours. Finally the sea 
grew calmer and we were just beginning to enjoy our- 
selves when off Cape Hatteras a severe storm broke 
upon us. The vessel pitched and rolled ; the baggage 
and boxes of freight tumbled about, threatening the 



VOYAGES OF FORTY-NINERS 163 

lives of those who were not kept to their berths by 
illness. 

" Although I was not seasick I dared not go about 
much. One night, however, growing tired of the misery 
around me, I crawled over to the end of the farther 
cabin, which seemed to be deserted. Presently the cap- 
tain and my father came down the stairs and I heard the 
officer say in a hoarse whisper. *I will not deceive you, 
Mr. Hunt ; the mainmast is down, the steering gear 
useless, the crew is not up to its business, and I fear 
we cannot weather the night!' I almost screamed aloud 
in my fright, but just then a long, lanky figure rose from 
the floor where it had been lying. It was one of the 
passengers, a typical Yankee. 

" ' See here, captain,' he said, ' my chum and I are 
ship carpenters, and the other man of our party is one 
of the best sailors of the Newfoundland fleet; just give 
us a chance to help you, and maybe we needn't founder 
yet awhile.' The chance was given, and we did not 
founder. 

** Some days later we anchored in the harbor of 
Chagres. There were many vessels in the bay, and a 
large number of people waiting to secure passage across 
the Isthmus. They crowded around the landing place 
of the river canoes and fought and shouted until we 
children were frightened at the uproar, and taking our 
hands mother retired to the shade of some trees to 
wait. 

" It was almost night when father called to us to 
come quickly, as he had a boat engaged for us. It lay 
at the landing, a long canoe, in one end of which our 



164 THE GREAT STAMPEDE 

things were already stored. Some men who were 
friends of father's and had joined our party stood 
beside it with revolvers in hand watching to see that no 
one claimed the canoe or coaxed the boatmen away. 
Mother and Sue were qlaickly tucked beneath the awn- 
ing, the rest of us tumbled in where we could, and at 
once our six nearly naked negro boatmen pushed out 
the boat and began working it up the stream by means 
of long poles which they placed on the bottom of the 
river bed, thus propelling us along briskly but with what 
seemed to me great exertion. 

" To us children the voyage was most interesting. 
On either side the banks were covered with such im- 
mense trees as we had never dreamed of. The ferns 
were more like trees than plants, and the colors of 
leaves and flowers so gorgeous they were dazzling. The 
fruits were many and delicious, but our father was very 
careful about our eating, and would not allow us to 
indulge as we desired. 

*' The night came on as suddenly as though a great 
bowl had been turned over us. For an hour or more 
we watched with delight the brilliant fireflies illumina- 
ting all the atmosphere except at the end of the boat, 
where the red light of a torch lit the scene. After we 
had lain down for the night the moon rose and I could 
not enough admire the beauty of the tropical foliage, 
with the silvery moonhght incrusting every branch and 
leaf. 

" The second day we left the boats and took mules 
for the rest of the journey. To my delight I was al- 
lowed an animal all to myself. Sue rode in a chair 



VOYAGES OF FORTY-NINERS 



165 



strapped to the back of a native, and our luggage was 
taken in the same manner, the porters carrying such 
heavy loads that it did not seem possible they could 
make the journey. 

" To my sister and me, the city of Panama was 
amazingly beautiful, with its pearl oyster shells glitter- 
ing on steeple and bell tower, and 
the dress of the people as magnificent 
as the costumes described in the 
* Arabian Nights.' In Panama we 
waited a long time for a steamer. 
The town was crowded and many 
people were ill. My mother was 
constantly helping some one until 
my father forbade her to visit any 
stranger, because cholera had broken 
out and many were dying. 

" It was a joyful morning when 
we boarded the steamer Califoiiiia, 
steamed out on the blue Pacific, and 
headed northward. We had more 
com.fortable quarters and better food 
than when on the Atlantic ; but never 
on the steamer did we feel the sense 
of grandeur and power that came to 
us on the brig when, with white sails 
all set, she rushed like a bird before 
the wind. 

'* Toward the close of the voyage 
there was so much fog that our captain did not know 
just whereabouts we were, and for that reason kept well 

B. CAI., — 1 1 



i66 THE GREAT STAMPEDE 

out to sea. One morning there came a rap at the 
stateroom door, and a loud voice cried, * Wake up, we 
shall be in San Francisco in less than an hour/ What 
a time of bustle followed ! The sea was rough. Sue 
and I fell over each other and the vaHses in our eager- 
ness to get dressed. I, being a boy, was out first. 
The sun was shining as though it was making up for 
the days it was hidden from us. The water was blue 
and sparkling, the air warm and dehghtful after the 
cold, foggy weather. 

" We were steaming due east, and almost before I 
knew it we had passed through Golden Gate and were 
in the quiet water of the bay. By the time mother and 
Sue were on deck, we were nearing the wharf. I 
thought then that San Francisco was rather disappoint- 
ing in its looks, with its unpainted houses of all kinds 
of architecture, and the streets like washouts in the 
hills, but soon I learned to love it with a faithfulness 
which was felt by many of the pioneers and will end 
only with life." 

Such were some of the hardships and discomforts 
endured by those who traveled to California by water 
during the period of the gold excitement. Yet those 
who made the journey by land often suffered even 
more. 

The first immigrant train to California started in 1841. 
It brought among its members a young man named 
Bidwell, afterward United States senator from Califor- 
nia. Describing this journey in the Century Magazme 
(Vol. 41), Mr. Bidwell says : — 

" The party consisted of sixty-nine persons. Each 



ACROSS THE PLAINS TO CALIFORNIA 167 

one furnished his own supplies of not less than a bar- 
rel of flour, sugar, and other rations in proportion. I 
doubt whether there was a hundred dollars in money 
in the whole party, but all were anxious to go. 

"Our ignorance of the route was complete. We 
knew that California lay west, and that was all. Some 
of the maps consulted and supposed to be correct 
showed a lake in the vicinity of where we now know 
Salt Lake to be, that was three or four hundred miles 
in length, with two outlets, both running into the Pa- 
cific Ocean, either apparently larger than the Mississippi 
River. We were advised to take along tools to make 
canoes, so that if we found the country too rough for 
our wagons, we could descend one of these rivers to 
the Pacific." It was two years later that Fremont, the 
pathfinder and roadmaker of the West, surveyed the 
great Salt Lake and made a map of it. The Bidwell 
party after many hardships reached California in safety. 

The unhappy Donner party, also home seekers, made 
the journey in 1848. They lost their way and became 



.•Jv,,)i^^ 







snow-bound in the mountains. A number of them died 
from cold and starvation, but the remainder were res- 
cued by relief parties sent out from Sutter's Fort. Their 
sufferings were too terrible to be told, and yet they 
started with fair hopes and as excellent an outfit as 
any party that ever crossed the plains. The follow- 



l68 THE GREAT STAMPEDE 

ing is from an account of the journey written by one of 
their number for the Century Magazine (Vol. 42) : — 

'* I was a child," says Virginia Reed Murphy, " when 
we started for Cahfornia, yet I remember the journey 
well. Our wagons were all made to order, and I can 
say truthfully that nothing Hke the Reed family wagon 
ever started across the plains. The entrance was on 
the side, and one stepped into a small space like a room, 
in the center of the wagon. On the right and left were 
comfortable spring seats, and here was also a little 
stove whose pipe, which ran through the top of the 
wagon, was prevented by a circle of tin from setting 
fire to the canvas. A board about a foot wide extended 
over the wheels on either side, the full length of the 
wagon, thus forming the foundation of a large roomy 
second story on which were placed our beds ; under the 
spring seats were compartments where we stored the 
many things useful for such a journey. Besides this 
we had two wagons with provisions. 

" The family wagon was drawn by four yoke of choice 
oxen, the others by three yoke. Then we had saddle 
horses and cows, and last of all my pony. He was a 
beauty, and his name was Billy. The chief pleasure 
to which I looked forward in crossing the plains was 
to ride on my pony every day. But a day came when 
I had no pony to ride, for the poor little fellow gave 
out. He could not endure the hardships of ceaseless 
travel. When I was forced to part with him, I cried as 
I sat in the back of the wagon watching him become 
smaller and smaller as we drove on until I could not 
see him any more. But this grief did not come to 



ACROSS THE PLAINS TO CALIFORNIA 169 

me until I had enjoyed many happy weeks with 
my pet. 

*' Never can I forget the morning when we bade fare- 
well to our kindred and friends. My father, with tears 
in his eyes, tried to smile as one friend after another 
grasped his hand in a last farewell. My mother was 
overcome with grief. At last we were all in the wagon, 
the drivers cracked their whips, the oxen moved slowly 
forward, the long journey had begun. 

"The first Indians we met were the Caws, who kept 
the ferry and had to take us over the Caw River. I 
watched them closely, hardly daring to draw my breath, 
feeling sure that they would sink the boat in the middle 
of the stream, and very thankful I was when I found 
that they were not like the Indians in grandmamma's 
stories. 

" When we reached the Blue River, Kansas, the 
water was so high that the men made rafts of logs twenty- 
five feet in length, united by cross timbers. Ropes 
were attached to both ends and by these the rafts were 
pulled back and forth. The banks of the stream being 
steep, our heavy-laden wagons had to be let down care- 
fully with ropes so that the wheels might run into the 
hollow between the logs. This was a dangerous task, 
for in the wagons were the women and children, who 
could cross the rapid stream in no other way. 

" After striking the great valley of the Platte the road 
was good, the country beautiful. Stretching out before 
us as far as the eye could reach was a valley as green 
as emerald, dotted here and there with flowers of every 
imaginable color. Here flowed the grand old Platte — 



I/O 



THE GREAT STAMPEDE 



a wide, shallow stream. This part of our journey was 
an ideal pleasure trip. How I enjoyed riding my pony, 
galloping over the plain gathering wild flowers! At 
night the young folks would gather about the camp fire 
chattering merrily, and often a 
song would be heard or some 
clever dancer would give us a jig 
^ i' on the hind door of a wagon, 

' In the evening, when we rode into 
camp, our wagons were placed so as to 
form a circle or corral, into which, after 
they had been allowed to graze, the cattle 
were driven to prevent the Indians from steal- 
ing them. The camp fire and the tents were 
placed on the outside of this square. There 
were many expert riflemen in the party, and 
we never lacked game. I witnessed many a 
buffalo hunt and more than once was in the 
chase close behind my father. For weeks 
buffalo and antelope steaks were the main 
article on our bill of fare, and our appetites 
were a marvel." The Reed family was the 
only one belonging to the Donner party, it 
is said, who made the terrible journey without 
losing a member. 

To the young people and men there was 
often much pleasure in crossing the continent 
in a prairie schooner, as the white-covered emigrant 
wagon was called ; but to the women it was another 
matter, since they had to ride constantly in a wagon, 
attend to the little children, and do the cooking, often 




ACROSS THE PLAINS TO CALIFORNIA 171 

under great difificiilties. Many of them learned to be 
experts in camp cooking, requiring nothing more than 
a little hollow in the hard ground for a range; or if 
there were plenty of stones, the cooking place might 
be built up a Httle. Over this simple contrivance, with 
the aid of a couple of iron crossbars, a kettle, a frying 
pan, and coffee pot, many a delicious meal was easily 
and quickly prepared. 

Mrs. Hecox, in the Overland Monthly, says : '* I am 
sure the men never realized how hard a time the women 
had. Of course the men worked hard too, but after 
their day's travel was over they sat around the camp 
fire, smoked, and told stories, while the women were 
tending the children, mending clothes, and making ready 
for the next day's meals. 

** After we crossed the Mississippi, it commenced rain- 
ing, and for days we splashed through the mud and 
slush. When we camped at night, we had to wade 
about and make some kind of shelter for our fires, and 
I was obhged to keep the children cooped up in the 
wagons. Here let me say that I never heard an unkind 
word spoken among the women all the way across the 
plain. The children were good, too, and never out of 
humor either, unless some cross man scolded them. 

" At one place a drove of buffalo ran into our train 
and gave us a bad scare. I was in the wagon behind 
ours attending a sick woman when I saw the drove 
coming. I knew the children would be frightened to 
death without me, so I jumped from the wagon and 
ran, but I was too late. Finding that I had no time 
to get into the wagon, I crawled under it, where a 



1/2 



THE GREAT STAMPEDE 



h 







wounded buffalo cow tried to follow me. I kicked her 
in the head as I clung to the coupling pole, and some- 
how broke my collar bone." 

As soon as the grass began to get green in the spring 
of 1849, ^f^si* the news of the discovery of gold reached 
the States, the overland march began. In white- 
covered emigrant wagons, in carts, on horses, 
^=^v niules, even on foot, came the eager gold 
^^ ^- seekers. How poorly prepared were many 
of them, it would be hard to believe. They were a 
brave and hardy company of people, but they suffered 
much. It is estimated that at least eight or ten 
thousand of the young, strong men died before the 
year was over. Many of these deaths were due to 
overwork and exposure, to the lack of the necessaries 
of life at the mines, also to the fact that a great many 
of the gold seekers were clever, educated people, quite 
unused to extreme poverty, and therefore lacking in the 
strength that comes ftom self-denial. 

Those who remained formed the best material for the 
making of the state. To this class belonged those who 
endowed the two great universities which are now the 
glory of CaHfornia. For many years the highest posi- 
tion in public life was held by men who came to the 
Golden State over the plains or by the uncomfortable 
ocean route in the days of '49, 



CHAPTER IX 



THE BIRTH OF THE GOLDEN BABY 




HE birth of the Golden Baby, in other 
words, the coming of the Golden 
State into the Union, was a time of 
struggle and uncertainty, when feel- 
ings were deeply stirred and hope de- 
ferred caused bitter disappointment. 
When the treaty of peace with Mexico 
was ratified by Congress it left the Pacific coast settle- 
ments in a strange position — a territory containing 
thousands of people, with more coming by hundreds, 
but with no legally appointed rulers. 

As soon as Congress accepted the treaty, the military 
governor ceased to have any power, for there was then 
no longer a state of war ; yet he was still obeyed by 
courtesy, until some one with a better right took his 
place. The only other official was the local alcalde of 
each community. This was a Mexican office, but was 
at that time often filled by an American who had, per- 
haps, been in the territory only a few months and knew 
nothing of Mexican laws, but ran things as well as he 
could after the Eastern fashion. 

The Rev. Mr. Colton, chaplain of the warship Con- 
gress, was made alcalde of Monterey, and his book on 
those times is most interesting. 



174 THE BIRTH OF THE GOLDEN BABY 

*' My duties," said he, *' are similar to those of the 
mayor of an Eastern city, but with no such aid of courts 
as he enjoys. I am supreme in every breach of peace, 
case of crime, disputed land title, over a space of three 
hundred miles. Such an absolute disposal of questions 
affecting property and personal liberty never ought to 
be confided to one man." 

The country owed much to Mr. Colton's work while 
alcalde. He soon gained the confidence of law-abiding 
residents, but was a terror to evil doers. Those he put 
to work quarrying stone and building the soHd structure 
afterward named Colton's Hall. Here one of the first 
of California's schools was opened, and here was held 
the first convention. 

Perhaps the truth that ** as a man sows, so shall he 
reap," that a wrong action is apt to bring its own pun- 
ishment, was never more plainly shown than in the 
Mexican war. The war was brought upon the United 
States in a great degree by those interested in slavery, 
not because they had any just cause of quarrel with 
the people of Mexico, but because they wanted more 
territory where slaves could be held. 

California, which was the name generally given to all 
the country extending from Mexico northward to Ore- 
gon and the Louisiana Purchase, and eastward from the 
Pacific Ocean to Texas, was what they really fought for, 
and when they got it, it became their undoing. When 
a commissioner went to Mexico to arrange for peace, 
he demanded California for the United States. As is 
usual, the conquered had to yield to the victor, and 
Mexico agreed, " provided the United States would 



THE STRUGGLE OVER SLAVERY 1 75 

promise not to permit slavery in the territory thus ac- 
quired." 

** No," replied Mr. Trist, the American commissioner, 
"the bare mention of such a thing is an impossibility. 
No American president would dare present such a 
treaty to the Senate." 

The Mexican authorities persisted, saying the pros- 
pect of the introduction of slavery into a territory, 
gained from them excited the strongest feelings of ab- 
horrence in the hearts of the Mexican people, but the 
American commissioner made no promise. 

In the summer of 1848 the President, in a special 
message, called the attention of Congress to California 
and asked that the laws of a territory be granted to it. 
The South agreed, provided half should be slave terri- 
tory. The Northern people, who disliked slavery, had 
no commercial interest in it, and felt it a disgrace to 
the nation, resisted this demand. Then began a bitter 
struggle over California and the question of slavery 
on her soil, which lasted for two years and called forth 
some of the grandest speeches of those mighty leaders, 
Webster, Clay, and Calhoun. 

In 1849, while this fight in Congress was still going 
on, an amendment to tax California for revenue, and 
another which would result in making her a slave state, 
were added to the regular appropriation bill which 
provided for the expenses of government and without 
which the government would stop. Congress was sup- 
posed to close its session on Saturday, March 3d, 
at midnight. The new President, Taylor, was to take 
office on Monday. 



176 THE BIRTH OF THE GOLDEN BABY 

There had been many times of excitement in that 
Senate chamber, but this night, it is said by those who 
were present, was equal to any. Such a war of words 
and a battle of great minds ! Many eyes were turned 
to the clock as it drew near the hour of midnight. 
Would the stroke of twelve dissolve the meeting and 
the great government of the United States be left 
without funds.'' 

To many of the senators this seemed a certainty, but 
Mr. Webster insisted that Congress could not end while 
they remained in session. So, through the long night, 
the struggle went on. About four o'clock the amend- 
ment in regard to slavery was withdrawn, and the bill 
for the government money was passed. 

Meantime the American settlers in California were 
extremely dissatisfied. To be living without suitable 
laws was an unnatural and dangerous state of affairs 
which could not be tolerated by men who loved their 
country and their homes. The Spanish Californians, 
also, were anxious to know what they had to expect 
from the laws of the United States. At last it was 
decided by the people, and agreed to by the military 
governor, Riley, who was a man of good judgment, 
that delegates should be chosen to a convention which 
should arrange a state constitution and government. 
It was determined, however, to wait for word from 
Congress, which had closed in such tumult. 

News would certainly arrive by the next steamer, the 
Panama, which was long overdue. It was a favorite 
amusement in those days for the boys of San Francisco 
to go upon the hill and watch for her coming. The 4th 



THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION 177 

of June they were rewarded by the sight of her. As 
she came into harbor a large part of the population 
hurried to the wharf, eager to learn the action of Con- 
gress. Was California to be a state or not ? 

The disappointment was great when it was found 
that nothing had been done except to pass the revenue 
laws, which meant taxation without representation. In 
the plaza and on the streets the crowds were loud in 
their disapproval. The excitement was almost as great 
as in Boston, so long before, when the news of the tax 
on tea arrived. A mass meeting was called. 

" It is plain they expect us to settle the slavery ques- 
tion for ourselves," said one. " We can do it in short 
order," said another. 

Monday, September 3, 1849, the constitutional con- 
vention met at Monterey. 

'' Recognizing the fact that there is need of more than 
human wisdom, in the work of founding a state under 
the unprecedented condition of the country," says the 
minutes of that meeting, '* the delegates voted to open 
the session with prayer." It was decided to begin each 
morning's work in this way, the Rev, S. H. Willey and 
Padre Ramirez oflficiating alternately. 

There were present forty-eight delegates, seven of 
whom were Spanish Californians. Of these Carrillo 
of the south and General Vallejo of Sonoma were 
prominent. They were able men, who were used to 
governing and who understood fairly well the needs 
of the times. Later, in the United States Senate, Mr. 
Webster quoted Mr. Carrillo of " San Angeles," as he 
called it. Another delegate. Dr. Gwin, was a Southern 



1/8 THE BIRTH OF THE GOLDEN BABY 

man who had recently come to California for the pur- 
pose of gaining the position of United States senator 
and of so planning things that even though the state 
should be admitted as free soil, it might later be divided 
and part be made slave territory. 

He depended for this upon the boundaries. If the 
whole great section was admitted as California, he 
thought division would surely follow with the southern 
part for slavery. The people, however, 
showed themselves opposed to slavery in 
their new state, and Dr. Gwin soon found 
that he must either forego his hopes 
of becoming .senator or give way on this 
point. The constitution finally adopted 
was that of a free state with its bounda- 
ries as they are to-day. The new legislature 
chose Colonel Fremont and Dr. Gwin senators, and 
they left in January, 1850, for Washington, taking the 
new constitution to offer it for the approval of Con- 
gress. 

While the people of the Pacific coast had been mak- 
ing their constitution. Congress was in session, and the 
subject of California and slavery was still troubling the 
nation. The discussion grew so bitter that in January 
Clay brought forward his famous Omnibus Bill, so 
called because it was intended to accommodate different 
people and parties, and contained many measures which 
he thought would be so satisfactory to the senators that 
they would pass the whole bill, although part of it pro- 
vided for the admission of California as a free state. 
At once Southerners sprang forward to resist the 




ADMISSION OF CALIFORNIA 1 79 

measure. They realized keenly that slavery could not 
hold its own if the majority of the country became free 
soil. They must persist in their demand for more 
slave territory, or give up their bondmen. Calhoun, the 
great advocate of slavery, who was at that time ill and 
near his death, prepared a speech, the last utterance of 
that brilliant mind, which was delivered March 4th. 
He was too ill to read it, but sat, gaunt and haggard, 
with burning eyes, while his friend spoke for him. It 
closed with the declaration that the admission of Cali- 
fornia as a slave or a free state was the test which would 
prove whether the Union should continue to exist or be 
broken up by secession. If she came in free, then the 
South could do no less than secede. 

Three days later, March 7th, Webster delivered one 
of the great speeches of his life. In it he said, ** The 
law of nature, physical geography, and the formation of 
the earth settles forever that slavery cannot exist in 
California." 

Seward followed with a speech mighty in its elo- 
quence. He said : ** California, rich and populous, is 
here asking admission to the Union and finds us debat- 
ing the dissolution of the Union itself. It seems to me 
that the perpetual unity of the empire hangs on this 
day and hour. Try not the temper and fidelity of 
Cahfornia, nor will she abide delay. I shall vote for 
the admission of California directly, without conditions, 
without qualifications, and without compromise." 

On September 9, 1850, California was at last ad- 
mitted. 

From that time the country advanced steadily onward 



l8o THE BIRTH OF THE GOLDEN BABY 

to the terrible period of 1861, when the South put her 
threat into execution. The Civil War followed, and the 
abolition of slavery; but from the sorrowful struggle 
there arose a better and happier nation, a united North 
and South. There are two things to be remembered : 
that into the new territory gained from Mexico slavery 
never entered ; and that the wealth which came from 
the mines of California did much toward strengthening 
the North in the conflict. 

Over half a year the CaHfornians had been waiting 
for their constitution to be adopted, and for their rep- 
resentatives to be received in Congress. Sometimes 
it seemed as though the good news would never come. 
One October morning word came down from 
^^ the lookout on Telegraph Hill: "The 

Oregon is coming in covered with bunt- 
ing. All her flags are flying." Almost 
at th'i same moment throughout the 
city could be heard the quick booming 
of her guns as she entered the harbor. 
With shouts and clapping of hands 
the people rushed to the wharf. Tears were pouring 
down the faces of men who did not know what it was 
to cry ; women were sobbing and laughing by turns. 
The shrill cheers of the California boys rose high above 
all. There was the report of guns, the cracking of 
pistols, the joyful pealing of bells. New York papers 
sold readily at five dollars each. No more business 
that day. Joy and gayety reigned. At night the city 
was ablaze with fireworks and mighty bonfires, which 
the boys kept going until morning. 




ADMISSION OF CALIFORNIA 



I8l 



Messengers started in every direction to carry the 
news. The way the word came to San Jose was excit- 
ing. The new governor, Peter Burnett, was in San 
Francisco on steamer day. On the very next morning 
he left for San Jose on the stage coach of Crandall, one 
of the famous drivers of the West. The stage of a 
rival line left at the same time. There was great ex- 
citement : a race between two six-horse teams, with 
coaches decorated with flags, and the governor on the 
box of one of them. 

They had to creep through the heavy sands to the 
mission, but beyond there they struck the hard road, 







"' ■ T^^M' 






''^^^^^v.Mi 



San Francisco Celebration of the Admission of California 



and away they went, horses at a gallop, passengers 
shouting and singing. As they passed through a town 
or by a ranch house people ran out, aroused by the 
hubbub. Off went the hats of all on the coaches. 

" California has been admitted to the Union ! " some 
one would shout in his loudest voice, and, looking back, 

B. CAL. — 12 



l82 THE BIRTH OF THE GOLDEN BABY 

they would see men shaking hands and tossing hats on 
high, and small boys jigging while shouts and cheers fol- 
lowed them faintly as they disappeared in the distance. 

Past San Bruno, San Mateo, Mayfleld, they went with 
a rush, then swept through Santa Clara, then at a gallop 
down the beautiful Alameda to San Jose, the governor's 
coach but three minutes in advance of its rival. 

A few days later there was the grand ceremony of 
admission day, which was described in the papers not 
only of this country but of England as well. 

Still, after the rejoicing came a time of anxiety and 
sorrow. In its treatment of the land question in 
California the United States made one of the gravest 
mistakes ever made by a civilized nation. 

The man whom the government sent out to investi- 
gate the subject, W. C. Jones, was an able Spanish 
scholar, skilled in Mexican and Spanish law, and his 
carefully prepared report declared that the greater part 
of the rancheros had perfect title to their lands, and all 
that was necessary for the United States to do was to 
have them resurveyed. 

In Congress, Senator Benton and Senator Fremont in 
most points supported this report as the only just plan. 
Against the bill that was finally passed Senator Benton 
protested vigorously, saying that it amounted to confis- 
cation of the land instead of the protection promised by 
the American government, through Larkin and Sloat. 

This law made it necessary for every Californian, no 
matter how long he had lived on his land, to. prove his 
title to it, and that, too, while the United States attorney 
resisted his claim inch by inch, as if he were a criminal. 



THE LAND QUESTION 183 

Thus the Spanish American, who was seldom a man of 
business after the standard of the Eastern states, was 
forced into the distressing necessity of fighting for what 
was his own, in courts, the law and language of which 
he did not understand. Meantime his property was 
rendered hard to sell, while taxation fell heaviest upon 
him because he was a large land owner. Often, too, he 
would have to pay his lawyer in notes, promising to 
give money when he could get it, and in the end the 
lawyer often got most of the land which the United 
States government had left to the unhappy Californian. 

The way in which unprincipled men got the bet- 
ter of the rancheros would fill a volume. Guadalupe 
Vallejo, in the Century Magazine (Vol. 41), tells how 
a leading American squatter came to her father and 
said : — • 

" There is a large piece of your land where the cattle 
run loose, and your vaqueros are all gone to the mines. 
I will fence the field at my own expense if you will 
give me half of it." Vallejo agreed, but when the 
American had inclosed it, he entered it on the record 
books as government land and kept it all. 

This article also describes the losses of the ranchmen 
from cattle stealing. It tells how Americans, who were 
afterward prosperous citizens, were guilty of selling 
Spanish beef which they knew had been stolen. 

The life of the Spanish-speaking people at the mines 
was made miserable. The American miners seemed to 
feel that the Californian had no right to be there. Of 
course there were some of the lower class, many of 
whom were part Indian, who would lie, steal, or, if they 



l84 THE BIRTH OF THE GOLDEN BABY 

had an opportunity, murder ; but often those who were 
persecuted were not of this type. A woman of refine- 
ment, who under the title of ** Shirley " wrote her expe- 
riences at the mines, says : — , 

*' The people of the Spanish race on Indian Bar, 
many of whom are highly educated gentlemen, are dis- 
posed to bear an ill opinion of our whole nation on 
account of the rough men here. They think that it is 
a great characteristic of Columbia's children to be preju- 
diced, selfish, avaricious, and unjust." 

Because in a quarrel a Mexican killed a drunken 
miner, the men of the Bar determined to drive away all 
Californians. They captured several, not the guilty one, 
banished some, and two they sentenced to be flogged. 
Shirley from her cabin heard what was going on. She 
tells how one of them, a gentlemanly young Spaniard, 
begged in vain to be killed rather than be disgraced by 
whipping. When, finally, he was released, he swore 
eternal vengeance against the American race. 

In San Francisco the disorderly state of affairs caused 
by the host of criminals gathered there from all over 
the world, attracted by the discovery of gold, became 
unendurable. On the city streets robbery and murder 
were of frequent occurrence, no one was safe, and 
wrongdoers went unpunished because, frequently, the 
officers of the law were in league with them. At last 
the best citizens felt that for the sake of their homes 
and families they must take matters into their own 
hands, so they formed an association, seven thousand 
strong, which was known as the " Vigilantes." 

Those who committed crimes were taken by this 



THE VlCxlLANTES 185 

organization, and, after careful trial, punished. Several 
of the worst offenders were executed, many were ban- 
ished from the country, and unjust officials were removed. 
When law and order were restored, the Vigilantes dis- 
banded. 

The example of San Francisco was followed in vari- 
ous parts of the state, especially in the mining camps, 
where there were many crimes; n^ \y||//////^^ ^^^^ 

but not all the Vigilantes dis- ^ -- '"^, 

played the same care and -^^2^'""^ -^^-=^-* = 

fairness as the people of the '^^ 



larger city, and sometimes ter " ^''"'' 

rible mistakes were made, and innocent people suffered. 

With thousands of newcomers on the Pacific coast, 
and the long distance between them and their homes, 
it was often of the greatest importance to get their 
parcels and mail to them as promptly as possible. 
For this reason several express companies were started 
and did excellent work; but the mail route called 
the Pony Express was the most interesting. It is well 
described by W. F. Bailey in the Ccntuiy Magazine 
(Vol. 56). 

One day in March, i860, the following advertisement 
appeared in a St. Louis paper : — 

" To San Francisco in eight days. The first carrier 
of the Pony Express will leave the Missouri River on 
Tuesday, October 3d, and will run regularly weekly here- 
after, carrying letter mail only. Telegraph mail eight 
days, letters ten days to San Francisco." 

From St. Joseph, Missouri, the first start was made. 
A large crowd was present to see the rider off. The 



1 86 THE BIRTH OF THE GOLDEN BABY 

same day, the same hour, the Western mail started on 
the thousand-mile ride eastward. There would be ten 
riders each way, with horses changed every twenty-five 
miles. 

Both Sacramento and San Francisco were full of 
enthusiasm. It was planned to give the first messenger 
a rousing reception when he should arrive from the 
East. He was received by crowds as he galloped into 
Sacramento, and hurried to a swift river steamboat 
which immediately started for the Bay. News of his 
coming was telegraphed ahead, and was announced from 
the stages of the San Francisco theaters so that when 
he arrived at midnight a large number of people were 
awaiting him, bands were playing, and bells were ring- 
ing ; and a long procession escorted him to the com- 
pany's office. 

In all, there were sixty riders of this express company, 
all young men, light in weight, accomplished riders, cool- 
headed, and absolutely brave. They were held in high 
regard by all, and with good reason. Each when he 
entered the service signed this pledge : — 

" I agree not to use profane language, not to get 
drunk, not to gamble, not to treat animals cruelly, and 
not to do anything incompatible with the conduct of a 
gentleman." They also had to swear to be loyal to the 
Union. 

The average journey of one man was seventy-five 
miles, this to be accompHshed in one day, but the men 
frequently had to double the distance, and once, when 
the messenger who was waiting was killed by Indians, 
" Buffalo Bill " (Mr. Cody) made the long trip of three 




THE PONY EXPRESS 187 

hundred and eighty-four miles, stopping only for meals 
and to change horses. 

By day and by night, through rain and storm, heat 
and cold, they rode, these brave men, one facing east, 
the other west, alone, always alone, often 
chased by Indians, though, owing to their \ 

watchfulness and the superiority of their 
horses, they were seldom caught. A 
number were, however, killed by im- 
migrants, who mistook them for In- 
dians or robbers. 

The great feat of the Pony Express 
was the delivering of Lincoln's inaugural 
address in 1861. 

With the Southern states claiming 
to be out of the Union, people <\i\lj 
were wild to know what the Presi- y^^'^^^^ ^^^ 
dent would say. To St. Joseph, 
Missouri, the address was hurried. Here it was care- 
fully wrapped in oil skin, consigned to the saddle bags, 
and amid wild cheers the express was off. Horses 
were waiting every ten miles. What a ride was that! 
"Speed, speed! faster, faster!" was the cry. Each 
man tried to do a trifle better than the last, while the 
thousands on the Pacific coast seemed to be straining 
their ears for the sound of the galloping hoof beats 
which brought nearer to them the brave message of 
the grand new President. And when the last rider 
came in, making the final ten miles in thirty-one 
minutes, what a cheer went up ! 

One thousand nine hundred and fifty miles in one 



l88 THE BIRTH OF THE GOLDEN BABY 

hundred and eighty-five hours, the message had traveled 
— at an average of a Httle more than ten miles an 
hour — straight across the continent. 

When we read of the speed-breaking special trains 
of to-day, let us not forget what these brave men 
of the first overland express accompHshed in the 
days of '6i. 



CHAPTER X 
THE SIGNAL GUN AND THE STEEL TRAIL 




OOM ! Boom ! Boom ! Never in his- 
tory did the firing of a gun have 
such a powerful effect as that which 
sent the first shot at the flag of the 
Union, as it floated over Fort Sumter on that memo- 
rable Friday, April 12, 1861. 

Fired at a time when most people were hoping for a 
peaceful outcome of the sectional troubles, it astonished 
the world and stirred the whole country to its depths. 

Across the dry plains and rugged mountains of the 
West its echoes seemed to roll. The startled people of 
the Pacific coast looked at each other with anxious, un- 
certain eyes. No one felt quite sure of his neighbor, 
and they were so far from the scene of action that the 
government could not help them. They must settle 
the great question for themselves. Who was for the 
Union } Who was against it "? 

In Washington the President and his advisers waited 
with keen anxiety to learn what wealthy California 
would do. Senator Gwin had often spoken in Con- 
gress and elsewhere as though it would certainly be 



igo THE SIGNAL GUN AND THE STEEL TRAIL 

one of the states to secede. He and others had talked, 
too, in a confident way, of the *' Grand Republic of the 
Pacific " that might be then formed out of the lands of 
the Western coast. To lose this rich territory would be 
a terrible blow to the Union. 

From the time of California's admission there had 
been a constant endeavor on the part of Southern sym- 
pathizers to introduce slavery into its territory. A large 
number of politicians, especially those holding prominent 
positions, were Southerners, some of whom, like Dr. Gwin, 
had come to the Pacific coast for the express purpose of 
winning either the new state or some portion of it for 
the South and slavery. 

They had succeeded in giving it a fugitive slave law 
that was particularly evil. Under it a colored man or 
woman could be seized, brought before a magistrate, 
claimed as a slave, and taken back South without being 
allowed to testify in his or her own behalf. Neither 
could a colored person give testimony in a criminal case 
against one who was white. 

Opposed to this strong Southern party one man stood 
almost alone as the friend of free labor and free soil. 
This man was David C. Broderick. For years he 
fought the slavery interests inch by inch in San Fran- 
cisco, in the state legislature, and finally in the United 
States Senate. 

When he went to Washington he found the same 
state of affairs as in CaKf ornia — President Buchanan 
yielding to the Southern demands, Southern members 
ruling and often terrifying Congress. Broderick at 
once joined Stephen A. Douglas in the struggle he was 



SENATOR BRODERICK 191 

then making for free soil in Kansas and the territories, 
and his speeches were clear and often fierce. 

In reply to a speech from a Carolina senator in re- 
gard to the disgrace of belonging to the working class, 
Mr. Broderick said {Congressional Globe, 1857-58), "I 
represent a state where labor is honorable, where the 
judge has left his bench, the doctor and lawyer their 
offices, the clergyman his pulpit, for the purpose of 
delving in the earth, where no station is so high, no 
position so great, that its occupant is not proud to 
boast that he has labored with his own hands. There 
is no state in the Union, no place on earth, where labor 
is so honored, so well rewarded, as in California." Mr. 
Broderick died in the midst of his bright career, mur- 
dered in a duel by one of the leading members of the 
slavery party. 

When he died, those of his fellow-citizens who believed 
much as he did, yet had let him fight secession and slav- 
ery lone-handed, recognized what he had done for them 
— their "brave young senator," as Seward called him, 
who had kept the evil of slavery from their soil. His 
work, stopped by the bullet of his enemy, was taken 
up by the people, and his name became a rallying cry 
for the lovers of the Union, of honest labor, and of 
free soil. 

News that the war had really begun brought forth 
the strongest Union sentiments from many of those 
who had before been careless or indifferent. A mass 
meeting of the people of San Francisco was held — 
business was suspended, flags were flying everywhere, 
while eager-faced people listened to earnest Union 



192 THE SIGNAL GUN AND THE STEEL TRAIL 

speeches. A few days later the legislature, by an al- 
most unanimous vote, declared in the strongest terms 
for the Union, offering to give any aid the government 
might require. No one could longer have any doubt 
of the loyalty of the state of California. 

There were certainly many people from the South 
who were deeply in sympathy with secession ; but 
these, if honorable men who were able to fight, hurried 
east to join the Confederate army, or if they chose 
to remain under the protection of the flag, were gener- 
ally wise enough to keep their feelings to themselves. 

Some there were, however, who, while they enjoyed 
the law and order of the peaceful state, still spoke, 
plotted, and schemed for secession. To keep such as 
these in order it was found necessary to retain most of 
the California troops in the state for home defense. 
Those who did reach Eastern battlefields fought well 
and nobly. 

One of San Francisco's ministers was unwise enough 
frequently to express disloyal views in the pulpit, until 
one Sunday morning he found the banner he would dis- 
honor floating over his church, and hanging to a post in 
front of the door a figure intended to represent himself, 
with his name and the word "traitor" pinned to it. 
The next day he left for Europe, where he stayed until 
the close of the war. 

Another minister, Thomas Starr King, was one of the 
most earnest supporters of the government. He organ- 
ized the California division of the Sanitary Commission 
for the assistance of sick and wounded soldiers. Chiefly 
through his influence California gave over a million and 



CALIFORNIA FOR THE UNION 193 

a half to that cause, which was one third of the whole 
expenditure of the Commission. 

In 1862 Leland Stanford became governor. He was 
devoted to the Union, always striving to influence his 
state to give liberally of its wealth to help the govern- 
ment ; and its record in that line was second to none. ** A 
good leader, energetic and long-headed," the governor 
was called ; but no one dreamed that long before he was 
an old man, he would give for the cause of education in 
California the mightiest gift ever bestowed by any one 
man for the benefit of humanity. 

During the war, California furnished 16,000 men, two 
regiments of which were among the best of the Union 
cavalry. One regiment of infantry was composed of 
trappers and mountaineers, from whom were taken many 
** sharpshooters " so famous in assisting the advance of 
the Northern troops. 

In the southern part of the state there was a body of 
volunteers known as the California Column, also the 
California Lancers, who, far off though they were, 
found enough to do. They drove the Southern forces 
out of Arizona and New Mexico, fought the Apache 
Indians in several battles, met and defeated the Texas 
Rangers, and took: various military posts in Texas. 

Great was the excitement in San Francisco when one 
morning the United States marshall captured, just as 
she was leaving the wharf, a schooner fully fitted out as a 
privateer. She was filled with armed men, and in her 
cabin was a commission signed by Jefferson Davis in 
the name of the Confederate States, also a plan for cap- 
turing the forts of the harbor, the Panama mail steamer, 



194 THE SIGNAL GUN AND THE STEEL TRAIL 

then en roitte north, and a treasure steamer soon to sail 
for Panama. 

In Los Angeles disloyalty was more outspoken and 
unrebuked by pubHc opinion. Sometimes the surround- 
ing ranchmen, many of whom were in sympathy with 
the South, on the news of a Southern victory would come 
into Los Angeles to celebrate with disloyal banners and 
transparencies. Living on Main Street there was a 
Yankee, one of the leading citizens, who upon such an 
occasion would take his rifle and, promenading the flat 
roof of his wide-spreading adobe, hurl down defiance at 
the enemy, calling them *' rebels " and " traitors " and 
defying them to come up and fight him man to man. 
But there must have been a feeling of good fellowship 
through it all, since no stray bullet was ever sent to put 
a stop to the taunts of the fiery old Unionist. 

Some Spanish sold\ers of the California Column, how- 
ever, grew weary of such open disloyalty, and one night, 
when off duty, captured two of the Southern ranchmen 
and proposed to hang them to the oaks in the pasture 
near where the city of Pasadena now stands. The 
American officers of the troops, hearing of the affair, 
hurried out from Los Angeles and begged their men to 
give up so disorderly and unsoldierlike an idea. *' Yes, 
sirs, it is true, all that you say ; but they are rebels, they 
talk too much; why suffer them to cumber Union 
ground ? " This seemed the only reply they could obtain ; 
but finally the captives were liberated, though advised in 
the future to guard well their tongues and actions. 

The desire for war news from the Eastern states led to 
the completion of a telegraph line between the Missouri 



THE RAILROAD I95 

River and San Francisco, and on all sides the need of 
an overland railroad was also being recognized. Plans 
for such a road had been frequently presented to Con- 
gress, but straightway slavery entered into the question. 
The South wanted the road, but it must be through 
Southern territory, while the North favored the middle 
or northern route ; and they could not agree. 

On one such occasion Senator Benton spoke in favor 
of a line that had just been surveyed by Captain Fre- 
mont. He was told by those who had other ^s-^^^^^^^nv 
plans that his route was not possible, that 
only scientific men could lay out a rail- 
road and determine the most practicable 
ways and easiest passes. But Senator 
Benton's answer is worth remembering. 

"There is," said he, " a class of sci- 
entific engineers older than the schools 
and more unerring than mathematics. They are the 
wild animals — the buffalo, elk, deer, antelope, and bear 
— which traverse the forest, not by compass, but by an 
instinct which leads them always the right way 
to the lowest passes in the mountains, the 
shallowest fords in the rivers, the richest pas- 
tures in the forest, the best salt springs, the 
shortest practicable route between two distant 
points. They are the first engineers to lay out a road ; 
the Indian follows. Hence the buffalo road becomes 
the war path. The white hunter follows the same trail 
in the pursuit of game ; after that the buffalo road 
becomes the wagon road of the emigrant, and, lastly, 
the railroad of the scientific man." 






196 THE SIGNAL GUN AND THE STEEL TRAIL 

Through her senators and representatives California 
spent several years in pushing this matter. In vain 
they called attention to the fact that the distance from 
Washington to San Francisco by the way of 
Cape Horn was 19,000 miles, or more than, 
the entire distance round the earth in the 
latitude of San Francisco; and that by Panama it 
was as far as from Washington to Peking in 
a direct line. 

In 1859-60 there appeared in Washington 
a young engineer named Judah, who had been 
sent by the people of the Pacific coast to urge 
the immediate building of the road by the 
middle route — that which was finally chosen. 
Mr. Judah knew more about the matter than any other 
man, east or west, and he failed in his mission only 
because the troubler, over slavery and the prospect 
of immediate secession took up the whole attention of 
Congress. 

However, he came back in no way discouraged, and 
continued to urge the matter in his cheerful, hopeful 
way. That he should be hopeful does not seem strange 
to us who know that the road was built and that it was 
a great success, but then conditions were different. 

"What, build a railroad over those mountains, with 
their terrible winter snows and landslides, across the 
desert, where there is absolutely no water .-* It is impos- 
sible, and these men know it ; they only want to get the 
people's money." Such was the type of article one 
might read at any time in the papers of the day. 

Still, Mr. Judah's talk had its results. One June 



THE RAILROAD 197 

day in 1861, Leland Stanford, a young lawyer, who was 
at that time Sacramento's chief grocer, Mark Hopkins 
and Collis P. Huntington, hardware merchants, and 
Charles Crocker, proprietor of the leading dry-goods 
store, met and organized the Central Pacific Railroad 
Company, with Stanford as president, Huntington as 
vice-president, Hopkins as treasurer, Judah as engineer, 
and Crocker as one of the directors. 

This action seems sensible enough as we write of it, 
but it was one of the most daring undertakings ever at- 
tempted by any body of men. None of the four was 
rich, all had worked hard for the little they had ; but 
they felt that the country must have the railroad, that 
without it California could never become a great state. 
But if they could only push forward, as soon as they 
had themselves accomplished something, help would 
come to them from the East and their success would 
be assured. 

Again Mr. Judah went to Washington, and this time 
he was successful. The war had made the government 
feel the need of the railway, not only to bind the Pacific 
coast closer to the eastern half of the continent, but to 
transport troops to defend its western shores. There 
were many now ready to vote for the road, and in July, 
1862, the bill, having been passed by both houses, was 
signed by Abraham Lincoln. 

It provided for the building of two roads, one from 
the Missouri River westward, the Union Pacific, and 
one from the Pacific coast eastward, the Central Pa- 
cific, the two to be continued till they met and formed 
one long Hne. 

B. CAL. — 13 



198 THE SIGNAL GUN AND THE STEEL TRAIL 

On the day that Leland Stanford was inaugurated 
governor of California, he had the further satisfaction 
of beginning the construction of the overland railroad by 
digging and casting the first shovelful of earth. This 
took place in Sacramento, in the presence of a large 
gathering of the leading people of the state ; and from 
that time the work went speedily on. It was estimated 
that the road would cost an average of eighty thousand 
dollars a mile, though in the mountains the cost was 
nearer one hundred and fifty thousand. 

Not only the right of way, but a large portion of the 
near-by public lands, were granted by the government 
to each road, and at the completion of each forty miles 
of track there was to be further aid. The state of 
California, the city of San Francisco, and the counties 
through which the railroad passed, each gave generously 
to the Central Pacific ; but all this did not bring in 
enough ready money. Huntington in the East and 
Stanford in the West almost worked miracles in getting 
funds to begin the work. 

In the death of Mr. Judah, which occurred at this 
time, the company suffered a great loss. Although the 
enterprise went on to a successful ending, his name 
dropped out of sight ; but those who know, feel that to 
him California owes a great debt of gratitude. Though 
she was sure to have the overland sometime, it might 
have been years later in its accomplishment, but for the 
faith, energy, and perseverance of Theodore D. Judah. 

Charles Crocker now took charge of the building of 
the road ; to accomplish the work he imported Chinese, 
whom he found peaceable, industrious, and quick to 



THE RAILROAD 199 

learn. They were arranged in companies moving at 
the word of command like drilled troops — '* Crocker's 
battalions" they were called. There was need of the 
greatest haste to get the different portions completed 
in the time allowed. 

" Why," said Crocker, ** I used to go up and down 
that road in my car Hke a mad bull, stopping along 
where there was anything wrong, raising Cain with the 
men that were not up to time." 

Neither Mr. Crocker nor Mr. Stanford ever recovered 
from the strain of that time. It is said that it eventu- 
ally caused the death of both men. 

Meantime the Union Pacific was pushing overland 
westward as fast as possible. Each road was aiming 
for the rich plains of Utah. If the Central stopped 
at the eastern base of the mountains, it would make 
this road of little value except for Pacific coast traffic ; 
but if it could reach Ogden, the line would pay well. 

It was a mighty race all through the winter of 1868 
and 1869, Crocker and his men working like giants. 
What he accompHshed then was scarcely less wonderful 
than Napoleon's passage of the Alps. 

All the supphes for his thousands of workmen, all 
the materials and iron for the road, even the locomo- 
tives, he had to have hauled on sledges over the moun- 
tains through the winter snows. 

Ogden was finally made the place where the two 
roads joined ; but they first met, and the last work was 
done, at Promontory, a point fifty miles northwest of 
Ogden. There in May, 1869, the last tie was laid. It 
was made of California laurel, handsomely polished, and 



200 THE SIGNAL GUN AND THE STEEL TRAIL 



•wi-,..<: 



on it was a silver plate with an inscription and the 
names of the officers of the two roads. 

It was an eventful meeting on that grassy plain, 
under the blue Western sky, while all around rose the 
rugged peaks that had at last been conquered by man's 
energy. The telegraph at this spot was, for the occa- 
sion, connected with all the offices along the line and in 
the leading cities of the country, where crowds were in 
waiting to hear that the great work was finished. 

Two trains were there with their engines, as Bret 
Harte describes them, '' facing on the single track, half 

a world behind each 
back." Around stood 
the guests and offi- 
cers of the roads 
waiting for the final 
ceremony. " Hats 
off," clicked the tele- 
graph. Prayer was 
offered, and then the 
four gold and silver 
spikes, presented by 
California, Nevada, Idaho, and 
Montana, were put in place by President Stanford of 
the Central Pacific and Dr. Durant of the Union 
Pacific. 

As the silver hammers fell on the golden spikes, in all 
the telegraph offices along the line and in the Eastern 
cities the hammer of the magnet struck the bell — " tap, 
tap, tap." '' Done," — flashed the message to the eager 
crowds. 










THE RAILROAD 20I 

All over the land the event was celebrated with great 
rejoicing. In Buffalo, as the news came, hundreds of 
voices burst out in the singing of " The Star-Spangled 
Banner." In Boston, services were held at midday 
in Trinity Church, where the popular pastor offered 
''thanks to God for the completion of the greatest 
work ever undertaken by men." 

To the four men who were the builders of the 
Central Pacific, the public and particularly the state 
of California owes much. They not only built the road, 
but made it a grand, complete success in all its depart- 
ments. Without it, California would still be a remote 
province, little known. With it she is one of the chief 
states of the Union, and in the great business world she 
is known and felt as a power. 

Later the corporation became very wealthy and 
powerful. Then it was that it began to abuse its 
power, working often against the best interests of the 
inhabitants of the Pacific slope. In some cases, as in the 
eviction of the people who were settlers in the Mussel 
Slough District, it was guilty of extreme cruelty and 
injustice, such as is almost certain to bring its own 
punishment. But in reckoning with the Southern 
Pacific, for so the company is now called, the people 
of CaUfornia should be careful to look on both sides of 
the question, remembering the terrible struggles of 
those early days, when the building of the Overland, 
that greatest achievement America had ever seen, was 
to them like the miraculous gift of some fairy god- 
mother, seemingly beyond the possibility of nature. 



CHAPTER XI 



THAT WHICH FOLLOWED AFTER 




BOUT the time that the people of 
California were beginning to feel the 
trouble arising from the unlimited 
wealth and power of the great rail- 
road corporation, they discovered 
what they felt was danger coming 
from another quarter. This was in the large number of 
Chinese pouring into the state. Already every town of 
importance had i^.s quaint Chinese quarter, bits of Asia 
transplanted to the western hemisphere. Yet these 
sons of Asia, with their quiet, gliding motions and orien- 
tal dress, had been of great service in the development 
of the new land. Many of the most 
helpful improvements were ren- 
dered possible by their labor, and 
for years they were almost the 
only servants for house or laundry 
work to be obtained. Never did the housewives of the 
Pacific coast join in the outcry against the Chinese. 

Although all this was true, it was also a fact that an 
American workingman could not live and support his 
family on the wages a Chinaman would take ; and when 
the white man saw the Chinese given the jobs because 
they could work cheaply, he became discouraged and 

202 




THE NEW CONSTITUTION 203 

angry. Was he to be denied a living in his own country 
because of these strangers ? For this reason the work- 
ing people became very bitter toward the Chinese. 
Their complaints were carried to Washington, and be- 
cause of them the government finally arranged with 
China for the restriction of immigration, but not, how- 
ever, before the matter caused much trouble in Cali- 
fornia. 

During the years i^J^-jj times were rightly called 
" hard " along the Pacific slope. Often laboring men 
could not get work, and their families suffered. The 
blame for all this was unjustly given to the Chinese, 
who were several times badly treated by mobs 
The general discontent led at last to a demand 
for a new state constitution, which many people 
thought would remedy the evils of which they 
complained. For twenty-five years the old 
constitution had done good service. On - 
the day it had been signed, Walter Colton, 
alcalde of Monterey, wrote thus of it in his 
diary : *' It is thoroughly democratic ; its 
basis, political and social equality, is the creed of the 
thousands who run the plow, wield the plane, the ham- 
mer, the trowel, the spade." Still it had its faults, 
the greatest of which was the power given the legis- 
lature over public moneys and lands, as well as the 
chance it allowed for dishonesty in voting. 

Unfortunately many of the delegates to the conven- 
tion which was to make the new constitution were for- 
eigners who knew very little of American manners, 
customs, and laws, and few of them were amono^ the 





204 



THE NEW CONSTITUTION 20$ 

deeper thinkers of the state, men who had had expe- 
rience in lawmaking. That the new constitution is not 
much better than the old, many who helped in the mak- 
ing of it will agree. It was adopted in May, 1879. 
Since that time it has received a number of changes by 
means of amendments voted for by the people, and in 
spite of whatever errors it has contained, the state under 
it has gone forward to a high degree of prosperity. 

In 1875, during the administration of Governor 
Pacheco, the first native state governor, an invitation was 
extended to native-born boys of San Francisco to take 
part in the Fourth of July celebration. A fine body of 
young men were thus assembled, of whom Hittell in his 
story of San Francisco says, " They were unparalleled 
in physical development and mental vigor, and unsur- 
passed in pride and enthusiasm for the land that gave 
them birth." This gathering led to the founding of the 
"Native Sons of the Golden West," an organization 
which now numbers many thousands and of which 
the great state may well be proud. Later there was 
organized a sister society of native daughters, and 
this also has a large membership. As stated in their 
constitution, one of the main objects of these sons and 
daughters of the West is "to awaken and strengthen 
patriotism and keep alive and glowing the sacred love 
of California." 

An event of the utmost importance to the southern 
part of the state was the completion of the railroad be- 
tween San Francisco and Los Angeles, which occurred 
in 1879. Its route lay through the rich valley of the 
San Joaquin. Work had been carried on from each end 



2o6 THAT WHICH FOLLOWED AFTER 

of the line, and it was a very happy assembly which 
gathered to witness the junction of the two divisions, 
the event taking place at the eastern end of the San 
Fernando tunnel. This road was afterward extended 
from Los Angeles eastward by the way of Yuma and 
Tucson, and is to-day the Southern Pacific Overland. 
Later the Santa Fe Company built its popular road be- 
tween Los Angeles and the Eastern states. Both these 
companies now have lines from Los Angeles to San 
Diego, and the Southern Pacific has a coast road the 
length of the state, along which the scenery is of great, 
beauty. 

Indians 

In the history of the state the most pathetic portion 
is that which rehtes to the Indians. Bancroft says, 
" The California valley cannot grace her 
'^^^, annals with a single Indian war border- 
ing upon respectability. It can boast, 
however, a hundred or two of as brutal butch- 
erings on the part of our honest miners and 
brave pioneers as any area of equal extent 
in our republic." Miners and settlers coming 
into the country would take up the waters 
where the natives fished, the land where they 
hunted, driving them back to rocky soil, 
where there was nothing but acorns and 
roots to support life. As a result the poor,, unhappy 
creatures, driven by hunger, would steal the newcomers' 
horses and cattle. It is true that the white men 
depended, in a great measure, upon their animals for 




INDIANS 



207 



the support of their families; but they thought only of 
their own wrongs, and would arm in strong parties, 
chase the wretched natives to their homes, and tear 
down their miserable villages, killing the innocent and 
guilty alike. The government was the most to blame, 
because it did not in the first place enact laws for the 
protection of the Indians in their rights. 




Indian Village 



About the towns, many of the natives gathered for 
work. In some places the authorities had the right to 
arrest them as vagabonds and hire them out as bond- 
men to the highest bidder, for a period often of as 
many as two or three months at a time, with no regard 
to family ties. Little seems to have been done to assist 
them to a better kind of life. In Los Angeles, when 
working in the vineyards as grape pickers, they were 
paid their wages each Saturday night, and immediately 



2o8 THAT WHICH FOLLOWED AFTER 

they were tempted on all sides by sellers of bad whisky 
and were really hurried into drunkenness. Their shrieks 
and howls would, for a time, make the night hideous, 
when they were driven by the officers of the law into 
corrals, like so many pigs or cattle, and left there till 
Monday morning, when they were handed over to who- 
ever chose to pay the officers for the right to own them 
for the next week. 

Near the Oregon line lived some of the most warlike 
and troublesome Indians of California. Here there 
were one or two severe fights, the worst of which was 
with the Modocs, in the northern lava beds. It was 
here that General Canby was killed. To-day the Mo- 
docs are still suffering keenly. In the upper part of 
the state the Indians have no lands of any kind, and 
noble men and women of California are working to se- 
cure for them their rights from the government. In the 
south, whole villages have been found living on nothing 
but ground acorn meal, from which miserable diet many 
children die and older people cannot long siistain life. 

The Sequoya League, an association for the better- 
ment of the Indians of the Southwest, has done much 
toward opening the eyes of the public and of the gov- 
ernment officials to the unhappy condition of these first 
owners of the soil. Congress, in 1906, appropriated 
$100,000 to be used in buying land and water for those 
Indian reservations or settlements where the suffering 
was greatest. This was a good beginning, but as the 
needy Indians are scattered all over the state, much 
more is required before they can be so placed that they 
can earn a living by their labors. 



SHEEP INDUSTRY 209 

Sheep Industry 

Gradually the cattle industry, which was for so long 
a time the leading business of the country, gave way to 
sheep raising. During summer and fall large flocks of 
grayish white merinos could be seen getting a rich liv- 
ing on the brown grasses, the yellow stubble of old 
grain fields, and the tightly rolled nuts of the bur 
clover; while in winter and spring, hills and plains with 




their velvet-Hke covering of green alfileria offered the 
best and juiciest of food. This was the time of the com- 
ing of the lambs. As soon as they were old enough 
to be separated from their mothers they were put dur- 
ing the day in companies by themselves. A band of 
five or six hundred young lambs, playing and skipping 
over the young green grass they were just learning to 
eat, was a beautiful sight to everybody save to the man 
or boy who had them to herd. They led him such a 
chase that by the time he had them safely corralled for 
the night, every muscle in his body would be aching 
with fatigue. 

Shearing time was the liveliest portion of the herder's 
life, which was generally very lonely. First came the 
shearing crew with their captain ; next arrived the vend- 
ers of hot coffee, tamales, tortillas, and other Mexican 
dainties ; brush booths were erected and a brisk trade 
began. The herds were driven up and into a corral 



COLONY DAYS 



211 



where several shearers could work at a time. Snip, . 
snip, snip, went the shears hour after hour. It was 
the boast of a good shearer that he could cUp a sheep 
in seven minutes and not once bring blood. As fast as 
cut, the wool was packed in a long sack suspended from 
a framework. The dust was dreadful, and the man 
or boy whose duty it was, when the bag was partly 
full, to jump in and tramp the wool down so that the 
bag might hold more, would nearly choke before he 
emerged into the clear daylight. 

The passage of the no-fence law by the legislature of 
1873, while it was opposed by the sheep and cattle men, 
was one of the greatest aids to the 
growth of agriculture, especially in 
the southern part of the state. It 
provided that cattle and sheep should 
not be allowed to run loose without 
a herder to keep them from tres- 
passing. This saved the farmer -^ 
from the necessity of fencing his grain fields, a most 
important help in a country where fence material was 
so scarce and expensive. 

Colony Days 

For some time after California's admission to the 
Union most of the events of importance in its history 
took place around the Bay of San Francisco and the 
junction of the Sacramento and San Joaquin ; but 
early in the seventies the south land awoke from its 
long sleep and took part in history making, not in 
such stirring incidents as those of the days of '49, but 




512 THAT WHICH FOLLOWED AFTER 

in a quieter growth that was yet of importance in the 
making of the state. People in the East had begun to 
find out that southern CaUfornia had a mild, health- 
ful chmate and that, though the sands of her rivers 
and rocks of her mountains were not of gold, still her 
oranges, by aid of irrigation, could be turned into a 
golden harvest, and that all her soil needed was water 
in order to yield most bountiful crops. 

As little land could be bought in small ranches, those 
wishing to settle in the country chose the colony plan. 
A number of families would contribute to a common 
sum, with which would be purchased a large piece of 
land of several thousand acres with its water right. Each 
man received from this a number of acres in proportion 
to the amount of money he had invested. The first 
colony formed was that of Anaheim ; then followed 
Westminster, Riverside, Pasadena, and many others, and 
by that time people began to come into southern Cali- 
fornia in large numbers. 

The overland journey was much longer then than now, 
but quite as pleasant. At twenty-two miles an hour the 
country could be seen and enjoyed, acquaintance made 
with the plump Httle prairie dogs of the Nebraska plains, 
and their neighbors the ground owls, which bobbed 
grave salutes as the train passed by. Bands of gallop- 
ing deer, groups of grave Indian warriors sitting on 
their ponies watching the train from afar, an occasional 
buffalo lumbering along, shaking his shaggy head, were 
the things that interested the traveler who took the 
overland trains in '74 and '75. 

At that time between San Francisco and Los Angeles 



COLONY DAYS 21 3 

there were two forms of travel : a hundred miles of rail- 
road, with the rest of the distance by stage ; and the 
steamship line. Families chose the ship. From San 
Pedro to Los Angeles was the only railroad of the 
southern country. In Los Angeles the flat-roofed adobe 
buildings, where people could walk about on the tops of 
the houses, were a wonder to the Eastern strangers. 
Beautiful homes some of them were, where glimpses 
could be had of stately senoras in silks and laces, and 
beautiful seiioritas whose dark eyes made havoc with 
the hearts of the colony young men. The young Cali- 
fornian, who seemed a very part of his fiery steed, was 
at once the admiration and envy of the Yankee boy. 

Queer sights were to be seen at every turn. Creak- 
ing carretas, whose squeaking wheels announced their 
coming a block away, filled the streets, some loaded with 
grapes, others with rounded shaggy grease-wood roots 
or sacks of the red Spanish bean and great branches 
of flaming red peppers. The oxen, with yoke on the 
horns, seemed as if out of some Bible picture. 

Life in the different colonies was much the same. 
The newcomers had many things to learn, but they 
made the best of their mistakes, and days of hard 
work, such as many of them had never known, were 
often ended with social or literary meetings, where 
minds were brightened and hearts warmed by friendly 
intercourse. 

When the rains were heavy, the swift mountain streams 
could not be crossed, and often provisions gave out; 
then with neighborly kindness those who had, loaned 
to those who had not, until fresh supplies could be 

B. CAL. — 14 



214 



THAT WHICH FOLLOWED AFTER 



obtained. To this day the smell of new redwood lumber, 
the scent of burning grease-wood brush, will bring back 
those times to the colonists with a painful longing for. 
the happy days of their new life in the new land. Many 
never gained wealth, while some lost lands and savings ; 
but it was these earnest, intelligent men and women 
who developed the rich valleys of the south land and to 
whom we are indebted for the bloom and beauty found 
there to-day. 

The result of the land laws and the ill-treatment of the 
Mexican population at the mines was a period of high- 
way robbery by bands of outlaws, each under the lead- 
ership of some especially daring man. The story of 
some of their adventures reminds the hearer of the tales 
of Robin Hood. Not so mild as Robin's were their lives, 
however. Often their passage was marked by a trail of 
blood, where bitter revenge was taken because of bitter 
wrongs. Last of these bands was that of Vasquez, 
who robbed the colony folk gently with many apologies. 
He was finally captured and executed, and with him the 
bandits passed from the page of state history. 

Alaska 

One night in 1867 there took place in Washington an 
event that was to be of great importance to the western 
part of the United States. This was the signing of the 
treaty for the purchase of Alaska. As early as i860 
Mr. Seward, in a speech delivered at St. Paul, said: — 

" Looking far off into the northwest I see the Russian 
as he occupies himself establishing seaports, towns, and 
fortifications, on the verge of this continent, and I say, 



ALASKA 215 

* Go on and build up your posts all along the coast up 
even to the Arctic Ocean, they will yet become the out- 
posts of my own country.' " So long ago did the 
desire for Alaska, or Russian America as it was then 
called, possess the mind of the great statesman. But 
it was not until seven years later that he found the 
chance to win the government to his views. One 
evening, while the matter was under discussion 
between the two countries, the Russian minister 
called upon Mr. Seward at his home, to inform 
him that he had just received the Czar's sanction 
for the sale. 

" Good, we will sign the treaty to-night," said 
the American statesman. 

" What, so late as this, and your department closed, 
your clerks scattered } " remonstrated the Russian. 

" It can be done," replied Mr. Seward ; and it was. 
At midnight the treaty was signed. The price paid 
for Alaska was less than the cost of two of our 
modern battleships. Every year has proved more 
and more the wisdom of the purchase. The dis- 
covery of gold in particular has immensely increased 
its value and has brought to California an enlarged 
commerce. 

Spanish-American War 

In 1898 came the war with Spain. The tidings 

of the i$th of February, 1898, filled the hearts 

of the people of California with indignation and \ 

grief. That the United States battleship Maine totem Pole, 

Alaska 
had been blown up in Havana harbor and numbers 

of our seamen killed, seemed to many sufficient cause 




2i6 THAT WHICH FOLLOWED AFTER 

for immediate war. Some, however, feared for the 
Pacific coast settlements, with insufficient fortifications 
and no war vessels of importance, except the magnificent 
Western-built battleship, Oregon. This vessel was at 
Puget Sound when the news of the 
blowing up of the Maine reached 
aJIM^^^^^^ her. At the same time came 

orders to hurry on coal and pro- 
ceed to San P'rancisco. There ten 
days were spent in taking on as much coal and pro- 
visions as the vessel could carry. Then, with orders 
to join the Atlantic fleet as quickly as possible, on the 
morning of March 19 she steamed through Golden Gate 
and turned southward, to begin one of the longest 
voyages ever made by a battleship. 

The people of California were sad at heart to part with 
their noble vessel, and when, in April, war was declared, 
thousands followed the loved ship and her brave men 
with their interest and prayers. All alone upon the great 
sea she was sailing steadily onward, to meet, perhaps, a 
fleet of foes, or worse still, a dart from that terror of the 
waters, a torpedo boat; yet always watchful and always 
ready for whatever foe might appear, she journeyed on. 

The order given by Captain Clark to his officers in 
case they sighted the Spanish squadron, was to turn 
and run away. As the Spanish ships followed they 
were almost sure to become separated, some sailing 
faster than others. The Oregon having a heavy stern 
battery, could do effective fighting as she sailed; and 
if the enemy's ships came up one at a time, there might 
be a chance of damaging one before the next arrived. 



SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR 21/ 

Through two oceans and three zones, fifteen thousand 
miles without mishap, the Oregon sailed in fifty-nine 
days. When she joined the fleet where it lay off Cuba, 
she came sweeping in at fifteen knots an hour, the 
winner of the mightiest race ever run, cheered at the 
finish by every man of the American squadron. All 
honor should be given to her wise captain and brave 
crew and to the Western workmen who made her so 
stanch and true. 

On a fair May day, while California children were re- 
joicing over their baskets of sweet May flowers, the first 
battle of the war was fought, the first, and for 
California the most important. When Dewey 
destroyed the Spanish fleet on that Sunday 
morning (May i, 1898) in Manila Bay, he not 
only won an important victory, but a greater 
result lay in the change of attitude of the 
United States toward the rest of the world. 
It was a change which had begun long 
before ; many events had led up to it, but 
possession of the Philippines and other 
islands of the Pacific forced our country to 
recognize the importance of Asia and the 
ocean which washes its shores. 

Commerce has always moved westward, 
going from Asia to Greece, to Rome, to 
western Europe, to the western hemisphere ; and the 
race which takes up the movement and carries it for- 
ward is the one which gains the profits. All must 
reahze the truth of Mr. Seward's prophecy when he 
said, " The Pacific coast will be the mover in developing 





2l8 THAT WHICH FOLLOWED AFTER 

a commerce to which that of the Atlantic Ocean will 
be only a fraction." **The opportunity of the Pacific," 
some one has called it. Nearly two thirds of the people 
of the earth inhabit the lands washed by the waters of 
this western sea, and the country which 
secures their trade will become the lead- 
ing nation of the world — a leadership 
which should be of the best kind, sup- 
plying the needs of peaceful life, build- 
ing railroads, encouraging the things 
that help a people upward and onward. 
To the young men of California, Hawaii 
and the Philippines offer every chance for daring, 
energy, and invention. If to honesty and energy there 
be added a speaking knowledge of the Spanish lan- 
guage, there lie before the youth of the Pacific coast 
the finest opportunities for active, successful lives. 

As soon as President McKinley issued his call to 
arms for the Spanish war, the men of California re- 
sponded with a rush. A large number of those who had 
enlisted were hurried to San Francisco, where the mili- 
tary authorities were quite unprepared to furnish sup- 
plies. For a day or two there was real suffering ; then 
the Society of the Red Cross came to the rescue, and 
thousands of dollars' worth of food and blankets were 
sent to the camp. As soon as the always generous 
people of San Francisco comprehended the state of 
affairs, there was danger that the hungry young soldiers 
would be ill from overfeeding. 

The twenty-third day of May, 1898, is a day to be 
remembered in the history of our country, for on that 



ANNEXATION OF HAWAII 



219 



day went out the first home regiment from the mainland 
of the United States, to fight a foe beyond the sea. 
When the twelve companies of California Volunteers 
marched through the city from the Presidio to the docks 
of the Pacific Mail and Steamship Company, two 
hundred thousand people accompanied them. So hard 
was it for our peace-loving people to understand the 
real meaning of war that it was not until the brave lads 
and earnest men were actually marching to the steamer 
which was to carry them thousands of miles to meet 
danger and death, that many quite realized the sorrow- 
ful fact. Men cheered the regiment as it passed, but 
the sobs of the women sometimes nearly drowned the 
hurrahs. Said one officer, *' It was heartrending. If 
we had let ourselves go, we would have cried our way to 
the dock." But in the war the record of the California 
troops was one that gave new honor to their state. 

Annexation of Hawaii 

"The Hawaiian Islands," said Walt Whitman, in the 
Overland Monthly, **are not a group. They are a 
string of rare and precious pearls in the sapphire center 
of the great American seas. Some day we shall gather 
up the pretty string of pearls and throw it merrily about 
the neck of the beautiful woman who has her hand- 
some head on the outside of the big American Dollar, 
and they will be called the beautiful American Islands." 

In 1893 the native queen of the islands was deposed 
by a revolution conducted in a great measure by Ameri- 
cans living in Hawaii. A provisional government was 
formed and an application made for annexation to 



220 THAT WHICH FOLLOWED AFTER 

the United States. Through two presidential terms the 
matter was discussed both in Congress and by the 
people all over the country. Many were against ex- 
tending our possessions beyond the mainland in any 
direction. Others thought it unfair to the natives of the 
islands to take their lands against their will. It seemed 
to be pretty well proved, however, that the native gov- 
ernment was not for the advancement and best interests 
of the country, and that in a short time these kindly, 
gentle people would have to give up their valuable pos- 
sessions to some stronger power. 

Captain Mahan, writing of these conditions, said : 
" These islands are the key to the Pacific. For a 

^^^^ foreign nation to hold them would mean that 
/^S^^A.,^ our Pacific ports and our Pacific commerce 
'*->*"' '^y would be at the mercy of that nation." 
In the early part of the Spanish war (July, 
1898) the resolution for the annexation of the Hawaiian 
Islands was passed by Congress and approved by Presi- 
dent McKinley, and the string of pearls was cast about 
Columbia's fair neck. 

Pius Fund 

It seems strange that the first case to be tried in the 
peace court of the nations at the Hague should have 
been in regard to the Pius Fund of the Californias 
collected by the Jesuit padres two hundred and thirty 
years before, to build missions for the Indians of Cali- 
fornia. The way in which this money was obtained is 
described in Cha]:)tcr IV of this history. It grew to be 
a large sum, of which the Mexican government took 



PANAMA CANAL 221 

control, paying the interest to the Roman CathoHc 
Church in Upper and Lower Cahfornia. After the 
Mexican war, Mexico refused to pay its share to the 
Church of Upper California. The United States took 
up the matter, claiming that according to the treaty 
which closed the war, the CathoHc Church of the state 
of California had a right to its Mexican property. 

In 1868 it was agreed by the two countries to leave 
the matter to the decision of Sir Edward Thornton, 
English ambassador at Washington. He decided that 
Mexico should pay an amount equal to one half the in- 
terest since the war. Mexico did this, but had paid noth- 
ing during all the years which had passed since that time. 
To settle the dispute finally, it was decided to leave it to 
arbitration by the Hague court. The verdict given was 
that Mexico should pay the Roman Catholic Church of 
California $1,400,000 for the past, and one half the in- 
terest on the fund each year from February, 1903, 
forever. 

Panama Canal 

The natural result of the nation's need in the Civil 
War was the overland railroad. The danger to the 
Oregon on its long journey, the difficulties in get- 
ting reenforcements to Admiral Dewey, and the posses- 
sion of new lands in the Pacific led to decided action 
in regard to the building of a ship canal through the 
Isthmus of Panama. 

For years the plan had been talked over. In General 
Grant's first term as President he saw so plainly our 
need of this water way, that he arranged a canal treaty 




222 THAT WHICH FOLLOWED AFTER 

with Colombia, and it seemed as though the work would 
soon begin, but the Colombian government refused to 
allow the matter to go on, hoping to make better terms 
^— with the United States. This was not possible then, 
-^ so the plan was not carried out. Later, a French 
company undertook to build a canal across Panama, 
n jk'k but after several years of work failed. 
j,/i)\>^^j Many of the Americans favored the route 

^ 1 fX through Nicaragua, but after the government 
''T[ had spent much money and time in considering 

\ I carefully both propositions, the preference was given 
to the Panama route. In 1902 an act for the building 
of the canal was passed by Congress and approved 
by President Roosevelt. It provided, however, that 
should the President be unable to obtain a satisfac- 
tory title to the French company's work and the neces- 
sary territory from the republic of Colombia on 
reasonable terms and in a reasonable time, he should 
seek to secure the Nicaragua route. The matter was 
almost settled, when again Colombia's greed got the 
better of her judgment and she refused to ratify the 
compact. 

When the people of the province of Panama saw that 
they were likely to lose their canal through the ac- 
tion of their government, they promptly revolted and 
declared themselves independent of Colombia. The 
United States recognized their independence, and a 
satisfactory treaty was at once concluded with them. 
In March, 1904, the commission appointed by the Presi- 
dent for building the canal sailed for the Isthmus. 

Nearly one fourth of the work had already been done 



THE ORIENT 



223 



by the old company, but there was yet a great deal to 
do. Besides the actual building of the canal, its dams 
and locks, the fever district had to be made healthful 
enough for workmen to live there, marshes had to be 
drained, pure water brought in from the mountains, and 
the fever-spreading mosquitoes killed. In addition to 
all this, the natives of the land and the many bands of 
workmen of different races had to be brought into an 
orderly, law-abiding condition. In less than a year it 
was found necessary to alter the commission, the 
President choosing this time men particularly noted for 
their energy and power to make things go, for it is the 
behef of the government that everything must be done 
to hasten the building of this great water way. 



M:\ 



The Orient 

In the latter part of the nineteenth century the eastern 
portion of Asia began to stir itself, rising up from the 
sleepy, shut-in life it had led for 
hundreds of years. The eyes of 
the world watched in wonder 
the progress of the war be- 
tween China and Japan (1894- 
95). In it was fought the first 
battle in which modern war ves- 
sels were engaged. It was found 
that the Japanese, of whom so 
little was then known, could fight, 
and fight well. 

As a result of the war, China ceded to Japan the 
territory of Manchuria and the right to protect Korea. 




224 



THAT WHICH FOLLOWED AFTER 



Russia and Germany objected, however, and France 
agreed with them, so Japan had to give way. Soon 
Russia began taking possession of the disputed terri- 
tories, but she had constant trouble with Japan, and 




Japanese Foot Gear 



early in 1904 war broke out. Before the close of the 
year the civilized world stood astonished not only at 
the wisdom, patriotism, and fighting qualities of the 
Japanese, but also- at their humanity, which would not 
have discredited a Christian nation. 

There took place a series of great battles, both on 
land and on the sea, in which the Japanese were gen- 
erally victorious. The terrible loss of life and 
destruction of property led the President of 
the United States, in the spring of 1905, to 
urge upon the two countries that fighting 
cease and peace be arranged. 
Few statesmen believed that Mr. Roosevelt 
would be successful in his humane endeavor, but 
he pushed his suggestion with patient perseverance 
until, in September, 1905, Americans had the 
satisfaction of witnessing upon their soil, at Portsmouth, 
New Hampshire, the signing of the treaty of peace 
between Russia and Japan. 

Japan's methods of conducting the war had advanced 





SOME RECENT EVENTS 225 

her to a standing among nations which she had never 
before occupied, and all realized the wisdom of securing 
commercial relations with her people, who were so 
rapidly adopting the habits and customs of the 
rest of the civilized world. In this competi- 
tion for her commerce, California, by her posi- 
tion on the western shore of the United States, 
has unusual advantages, a fact which was soon 
proved by the amount of money invested in increas 
ing her facilities for production and manufacturin 
Unfortunately little has yet been done in the matter 
of shipbuilding, and few vessels which enter her harbors 
have been built in the state. 

Some Recent Events 

" I'll put a girdle around the earth in forty minutes," 
prophesied Puck in " Midsummer Night's Dream." The 
boastful fairy did not succeed in accomplishing this won- 
der until midnight on the Fourth of July, 1903. On that 
day the Pacific cable from the United States to Hawaii, 
to Midway Island, to Guam, and to Manila, began 
operations. The men worked hard that last day of the 
cable-laying, and by 1 1 p.m. the President of the United 
States sent a message to Governor Taft at Manila. 
Soon after was the old prophecy fulfilled, when Presi- 
dent Roosevelt, no doubt with Puck at his elbow, sent a 
message round the world in twenty minutes, thus better- 
ing Puck's idea by half. 

The saddest year in California's records is that of 
1906. On the morning of April 18, a great and over- 
whelming calamity overtook the beautiful region around 



226 THAT WHICH P^OLLOWED AP^TER 

San Francisco Bay. A movement of the earth's crust 
which began in the bottom of the ocean far out from land, 
reached the coast in the vicinity of Tomales Bay in 
Marin County. Wrecking everything that came in its 
direct path, it shivered its way in a southeasterly 
direction to a point somewhere in the northern part of 
Monterey County. The land on the two sides of the 
fault moved a short distance in opposite directions. 
Thus in some straight fences and roads crossing the 
fault, one section was found to be shifted as much as 
sixteen feet to one side of the other. The severe vibra- 
tions set up by this break and shifting extended a long 
distance in all directions. 

Although the earthquake was by no means so severe 
in San Francisco as in the region of Tomales Bay or 
even in the vicinity of Stanford, Santa Rosa, San Jose, 
or Agnews, it was far more disastrous on account of 
the crowded population. Wherever the land had been 
reclaimed from swampy soil or built up by filling in, 
there the wreck of buildings was far greater than on 
firm, natural ground. In San Francisco it was the 
badly constructed buildings that fell. People who had 
prophesied that, should an earthquake come, the high 
buildings such as those of the Call and the Chronicle 
would surely collapse, were astonished to see those giant 
structures apparently unharmed while buildings of much 
less height, but without the steel framework, were com- 
pletely wrecked. 

The earthquake was a sad calamity, causing the death 
of many people and the destruction of much valuable 
property; but had this been the sum of the disaster the 



SOME RFXExNT EVENTS 



227 



city would only have paused in its progress long enough to 
clear away the wreck and to sorrow with the mourners. 
It was the fires which sprang up while the water system 
was too damaged to be of use that wiped out old histori- 
cal San Francisco, leaving in its place a waste of gray 




San Francisco City Hall after the Earthquake and Fire 



ashes and desolate ruins. Santa Rosa, San Jose, Stan- 
ford, Agnews, all suffered severely from the earthquake ; 
but in few cases did fires arise to add to their loss. The 
State Insane Asylum at Agnews, which was built on 
swampy ground, was a complete wreck with large loss 
of life. 

The marvelous bravery and cheerfulness with which 
the people of San Francisco bore their cruel fate gave 



228 THAT WHICH FOLLOWED AFTER 

a lesson in courage and unselfishness to humanity. The 
magnificent generosity with which not only the people of 
southern and northern California, but of the whole 
country, sprang to the relief of the unhappy city gave a 
silver lining to the black cloud of disaster. 

A new city, more artistic, more hygienic, better in many 
ways than before, will surely arise from the ashes, but 
it will not be San Francisco, the well-beloved, "the City 
of old, the City of gold, the City of '49." 




CHAPTER XII 

"THE CxROVES WERE GOD'S FIRST TEMPLES'^ 

F the people of this century continue 
the destruction of trees as they are 
doing at present, a hundred years 
from now this will be a world without 
forests, a woodless, treeless waste. 
What a desolate picture is this ! 
What a grave charge will the people of the future have 
to bring against us that we recklessly destroy the trees, 
one of God's most beautiful and useful gifts to man, 
without even an endeavor to replace the loss by 
replanting ! 

During the last hundred years the American lumber 
belt has moved westward over a wide space. In the 
early days of our history nearly the entire supply came 
from Maine, and what interesting stories we have of those 
brave pioneer loggers and settlers ! Gradually the noble 
woods which furnished the tall, smooth masts for which 
American ships were famous, were destroyed ; and the 
ringing ax blows were then heard in the forests about the 
Great Lakes and in the middle Southern states. This 
supply is by no means exhausted, but to-day the heart 
of the lumber interest is on the Pacific coast. 

Around the great central valley which is drained by 
the Sacramento and the San Joaquin rivers, six hundred 
and forty miles long, lie mountain ranges on whose 

E. CAL. — 15 229 



250 THE FIRST TEMPLES 




slopes are some of the noblest forests of the world. To 
the north of the central valley the trees of the east and 
west join, forming a heavily wooded belt quite across 
the state. 

In the trade, the greatest demand is for lumber of the 
pine and fir trees, and of these California has as many 
species as Europe and Asia combined. She has, indeed, 
only a little less than one fifth of all the lumber supply 
of the United States. Her most valuable tree for com- 
merce is the sugar pine. It attains a diameter of twelve 
feet or more and is often two hundred feet high. But 
the most interesting trees of California and of the world 
are the Sequoias, the oldest of all living things. Very 
far back, in the time of which we have no written 
history, in the moist days of gigantic vegetation 
and animals, the Sequoias covered a large portion 
of the earth's surface ; then came the great ice 
overflow, and when that melted away, almost the 
only things living of the days of giants were the 
Sequoias of middle and upper California, and those 
on some two thousand acres over the Oregon line. 
The Sequoia sempei'virens, which is commonly 
Redwood called redwood, is distributed along the Coast 
Range, the trees thriving only when they are 
constantly swept by the sea fogs. For lumber this tree 
is nearly as valuable as the sugar pine. From Eureka 
to San Diego, this is the material of which most of the 
houses are built. Because of its rich color and the high 





LUMBER 23 

polish it takes, especially the curly and grained por- 
tions, its value for cabinet work is being more and 
more appreciated. On account of the presence of 
acid and the absence of pitch and rosin in its 
composition, it resists fire and is therefore a safe 
wood for building. When the Baldwin Hotel in 
San Francisco, a six-story building of brick 
and wood, burned down, two redwood water 
tanks on the top of the only brick wall that 
was left standing, were found to be hardly 
charred and quite water-tight. 

It is the redwood which furnishes the largest 
boards for the lumber trade. Not long ago a man redwood 
in the lumber region built his office of six boards twig 
taken from one of the trees. The boards were twelve 
by fourteen feet, and there was one for each wall, one 
for the floor, and one for the ceiling. Windows and 
doors were cut out where desired. 

In the heart of the redwood and pine forests there are 
some thirty mill plants, and they own about half of the 
timber district. The methods of lumbering are exceed- 
ingly wasteful. Scarcely half of the standing timber of 
a tract is taken by the loggers and what is left is often 
burned or totally neglected. Replanting is unthought 
of and the young trees are treated as a nuisance. 

Three fourths of the forests of California grow upon 
side hills, generally with an incline of from fifteen to 
thirty degrees. When the trees are gone, therefore, 
the rain soon washes away the soil, leaving the rocks 
bare. When the next rainy season comes, the water, 
not being able to sink into the earth, and so gradually 



232 



THE FIRST TEMPLES 



find its way to the streams, rushes down the hillsides 
in torrents, flooding the smaller water courses. Then 
the rivers rise and overflow, causing great damage to 
property ; but their waters quickly subside, and when 
the dry season comes they have not sufficient depth for 
the passage of ships of commerce. The total destruc- 
tion of the forests would soon destroy the navigability 

of the principal water 
highways of the state, 
while another serious 
result would be the 
lessening of the water 
supply for irrigation. 

The second variety 
of the Sequoia, the 
gigantea, or " big tree," 
as it is called, grows 
much farther inland 
than the redwood, 
being found on the 
western slopes of the 
Sierras. There are 
ten separate groves of these trees, from the little com- 
pany of six in southern Placer County to the southern- 
most Sequoia, two hundred and sixty miles away on the 
Tule River. The whole put together would not make 
more than a few hundred thousand of extra-sized trees, 
and of the giants themselves not more than five hundred. 
These rise as high as three hundred and fifty feet, and 
are from twenty to thirty feet through. Near the 
Yosemite the stage road passes through the hollow 




234 



THE FIRST TEMPLES 



center of one of those monsters. 
In a grove owned by the gov- 
ernment some cavalry men, with 
their horses, Uned up on a " big 
tree" log, and it easily held four- 
teen, each horse's nose touching 
the next one's tail. 

How old these trees may be is 
yet unsettled, but Mr. John Muir, 
their intimate friend and com- 
panion, tells of one which was 
felled which showed by its rings 
that it was 2200 years old. 
Another which had blown down 
was fully 4000 years old. Later 
investigation makes it seem not 
unlikely that some have existed 
for even 5000 years. It seems 
a sin to destroy a living thing of 
that age. 

The great basin of the Santa 
Cruz Mountains, which contains 
a large collection of the Sequoia 
sempervircns, belongs to the 
United States government. So, 
too, do the Mariposa grove of 
S^(\Mo\2i. gigantea^ and the Gen- 
eral Grant park, and Tuolumne 
grove, each of which contains a 
small number of fine specimens 
of the big trees. These proper- 



LUMBER 235 

ties will be protected, but all other groves, in which are 
the giant Sequoias, are in great danger. There has 
recently been a movement by the government toward 
purchasing the Calaveras grove, which has the finest 
collection of the big trees known, but nothing decided 
has been done. Meantime there are a number of mills 
engaged in devouring this noble forest. 

Unless the people of California take up the matter 
with earnestness and energy, the state and the United 
States will stand disgraced before mankind for letting 
these wonders of the world, these largest and oldest of 
all living things, be destroyed for the lumber they will 
make. They should be purchased by the government 
and protected, then some movement should be started 
in all lumber districts by which waste in logging may 
be done away with, young trees protected and cleared, and 
forest land replanted with suitable trees. The law exclu- 
ding cattle and sheep from the forests is already proving 
its wisdom by the new growth of young trees. Only 
among the giant Sequoias of the Tule and King's River 
district are there to be found baby trees of that species. 

The lumber trade is one of the most interesting and 
necessary industries of the state. Work in the camp 
is healthful and well paid. Many a delicate boy or 
young man in the city would grow strong and healthy 
and live a much longer time if he would cast his lot 
with the hardy choppers and cutters of the great forest 
of the Pacific slope. A logging crew consists of thirty 
men, including two cooks. The discipline is as rigid as 
that of a military system ; each man knows his own par- 
ticular duties, and must attend to them promptly and 



236 THE FIRST TEMPLES 

faithfully. Trees are not chopped down, as used to be 
the custom ; with the exception of a little chopping on 
either edge, a saw run by two men does the work. 
Oxen are seldom used, as in early days on the Atlantic 
coast, to haul out the logs, for they have given way to 
"donkeys," — not the long-eared, loud-voiced httle 
animals, but the powerful, compact donkey-engines. 

Lumber schooners and steamers are the chief features 
of our coast traffic. Almost all the large cities of the 
Pacific coast owe their foundation and prosperity to 
this trade. San Francisco and Eureka in Hum- 
boldt County are the principal ports of 
. the trade. Mendocino has a rock-bound 
\V ' coast, with no harbors, but she has fine 
forests. Here the lumber steamer se- 
cures its cargo by means of suspended 
wire chutes as trolleys. The outer end 
#% ? > of the trolley wire is anchored in the ocean, 
i^^, > the wire crosses the deck of the moored 
steamer, the slack being taken up to the ship's 
^ gaff, thus making a tight Vv^ire up and down which 
the trolley car with its load is sent. 

Sometimes a great raft made of lumber is taken in 
tow by a steamer loaded with the same material and they 
start on a voyage down the coast, but this is a dangerous 
venture. If the sea becomes rough the raft may 
break loose from the steamer and go plunging over 
the waves, no one knows where. The brave captains of 
our coasting vessels fear nothing so much as a timber 
raft adrift which may crash into a vessel at any moment 
and against which there is no way of guarding. 




CHAPTER XIII 




TO ALL THAT SOW THE TIME OF HARVEST 
SHOULD BE GIVEN 

N all but savage countries, wheat is the 
most important product of the soil. 
A large proportion of human beings 
living on the earth to-day are so 
poverty-stricken as to make the ques- 
tion of food a matter of anxiety for 
every day. The prayer for bread unites more voices 
than any other. 

The padres who settled California understood this 
well. A number of bushels of wheat, snugly incased 
in leather sacks, formed a precious part of the cargo 
of the San Carlos, that stout Spanish vessel which 
in 1769 brought the first settlers to California. This 
seed-wheat was divided among the early missions and 
as soon as possible was planted — not with success at 
first. For a time the padres made little progress in 
crop raising. They had to learn by their failures. In 
San Diego the first wheat planted was sown in the river 
bottom and the seed was carried entirely away by the 
rising of the stream in the winter ; and the next year, 
which proved to be a dry one, it was planted so far 
from the water that it was almost all destroyed by 
drought. At San Gabriel the first crop was drowned 

237 



238 THE TIME OF HARVEST 

out, but the second, planted on the plain where it could 
be irrigated, was a success. San Gabriel was chief 
among the missions for wheat raising, and was called 
the "mother of agriculture." 

Grain planting and harvesting, in the days of the 
padres, differed widely from the methods which prevail 
to-day. Then the ground was plowed once or twice, 
but in what manner ? A yoke of oxen, guided by an 
Indian, dragged a plow with an iron point made by 
an Indian blacksmith. If iron could not be obtained, 
the point was of oak. Seed, which had been first 

soaked in lye, was sown by 
.|'i...jv. hand, broadcast, and harrowed 
l"''V " in with branches of trees. The 
^'^^^^^^■'^^^^^ grain was cut by the Indians with knives 
and sickles. It was afterward placed on the 
hardened floor of a circular corral made for the pur- 
pose, and into it was turned a band of horses which 
were urged to a run by the shouts and whips of the 
Indian vaqueros. After running one way they were 
frightened into turning and going the other. In this 
manner the grain was trampled out of the husks. It 
was freed from the chaff by being thrown high in the 
air by the shovelful, when the wind was blowing hard 
enough to carry away the Hght straw. 

Next, the grain was washed and dried, then ground, 
generally between two stones bolted together. A pole 
for a handle was also fastened by the bolt, and the stone 
was turned, sometimes by mules, sometimes by Indians. 
La Perouse, the French scientist who visited the coast 
in 1786 and gave to the padres of San Carlos a hand 




GRAIN 239 

mill for grinding grain, said that it would enable four 
Indian women to do the work of a hundred by the old 
way. Before many years the padres at San Gabriel 
built a water mill of stone and adobe which ground 
grain in large quantities, but not with entire success, 
until Chapman, the first American in that region, gave 
them his assistance to perfect the machinery. This in- 
teresting building has been restored by Mr. H. E. Hunt- 
ington and is an object of interest to those who visit 
San Gabriel. 

In 181 5 the missions raised enough wheat to supply 
the whole population, and there was even an attempt to 




ship grain to Mexico. This was a failure, but a little 
grain was sold to the Russians at Fort Ross. At the 
time of the change in the mission settlements, when the 
padres were sent away, all agriculture declined. Dur- 
ing the Mexican War and when the crowd of gold 
seekers came, there was very little grain or flour to be 
had. Some of the gold hunters, who had been farmers 
in the East, faihng to find a fortune in the river sands, 
and seeing the lack of food stuffs, went back to their 
old occupation. They put in crops of wheat and barley 
along the waters of the Sacramento and San Joaquin, 



240 THE TIME OF HARVEST 

and were amazed at the fertility of the soil and the 
success of their venture. 

From this time the cultivation of wheat increased 
rapidly. In 1899 was harvested the largest crop re- 
corded. After that there was a decline in wheat rais- 
ing, because many farmers planted much of their grain 
lands to fruit for canning and drying. To Cahfornia 
inventors is due the credit of substituting steam for 
hand labor in planting and harvesting grain. 

Let us look at the busy scene on a grain field in the 
California of to-day. It is fall or early winter, and the 
time for planting has arrived. Into the field, which is 
several thousands of acres in extent, comes a great 
engine, one that does not need a track to run upon. 
Over the ground it rolls. With strength equal to fifty 
horses it draws behind it sixteen ten-inch plows, four 
six-foot harrows, and a press drill to match. It takes 
only a few men to manage it, and in a short time it has 
plowed, harrowed, and sown the broad acres ; noth- 
ing is left to do until the harvest time arrives. 

When the grain is ripe, there comes another great 
machine. This is the harvester, whose knives or cutters 
may be as much as twenty-six feet wide. This one 
machine cuts off the heads of wheat, thrashes them, 
cleans the grain, and sacks it, clearing seventy-five acres 
in a day, leaving on the fields the piles of sacked wheat 
ready for market. It is most interesting to watch one of 
these giants of steel and iron traveling over the uneven 
ground, crossing ditches, crawling along side hills, with- 
out any trouble or change of pace, gathering in the ripe 
grain, turning it out snugly tucked away in the brown 



242 THE TIME OF HARVEST 

gunny- sacks waiting for its long journey by ship or car. 
How the padres would wonder if they could see it 
working ! 

The grain of the California wheat is white and soft, 
and contains much gluten. No matter what hard red or 
yellow varieties are brought from other countries 
)'l./ and planted here, in a year or two they change 
to the California type. It is not certainly known 
what causes this peculiarity. The grain most in 
favor through the state is called " club wheat " 
from the form of the head, which is block-shaped, 
instead of long and slender. The " club wheat " 
holds fast its grain so that it can be harvested 
without falling to the ground, which, in so dry a 
climate, is a great point in its favor. 

Wheat is raised all over the state, both on high and 
on low land. Some of the largest grain ranches are 
along the tule lands around Stockton. These were 
marshes once, but have been drained, and now are choice 
grain fields. Wheat was first sent out of the state to 
England as ballast for returning ships, but the trade 
gradually increased until there are now over one hundred 
of the finest sailing vessels engaged in it. Unfortunately, 
few of these vessels are American, perhaps but one 
fourth. It is a pity that our countrymen should not 
benefit more by this trade. During the grain season at 
most of the Pacific ports the flag of nearly every nation 
on earth is represented. All styles of shipping, from 
the largest modern steamer to the smallest ocean saiUng 
vessel, are then to be found in the harbors of the coast. 
Grain is carried to the docks in barges, schooners, or 




GRAIN 243 

on cars, and is seldom shipped except in sacks. Wheat, 
unless it needs to be cleaned or graded, is kept in the 
sack in which it leaves the home field. To watch the 
grain being loaded in the ship is a sight well worth 
seeing. If the wharf, or car, or warehouse where it lies 
is higher than the deck of the vessel on which it is to be 
shipped, the sacks are placed on an inclined chute down 
which they descend to the hold of the ship. If the deck 
of the vessel is the higher, sometimes an endless belt, 
run by electricity, is placed in a chute, the sacks are laid 
on the belt, and so carried to their resting place. 

In loading wheat for export, a number of sacks in 
each row are bled ; that is, a slit is made in the sack 
which allows a small quantity of grain to escape and fill 
the spaces round the corners and sides of the sack, thus 
making a compact cargo which is not liable to shift. At 
Port Costa is located a grader, where, when necessary, 
wheat can be cleaned and graded ; here also are many 
large warehouses. 

For a long time about two thirds of the wheat crop 
of the state was sent to Ireland, but now our new lands in 
the Pacific take much of it. California has an immense 
trade in wheat that has been ground into flour. Over 
six milHon dollars' worth of flour is shipped each year, 
nearly three fourths of it going to China, Japan, and the 
islands of the Pacific. 

It is believed by scientific agriculturists that better 
results will be obtained in wheat raising as smaller 
ranches become the rule, where the farmer can give more 
attention to the needs of the grain, adding what is 
necessary to the soil. Often the alternation of crops 



244 



THE TIME OF HARVEST 



increases the yield — wheat doing much 
better if planted where beans or other 
legumes were raised the year before. 
Where the grain fields are not so large, irri- 
gation can be depended upon instead of the 
rainfall, and crops then are sure and more 
even in quantity. 

Barley is the grain next in importance to 
wheat in California. It can be raised where 
wheat can not, as it needs less moisture for 
its development ; and if the rains fail, it can 
be cut for hay which always brings a good 
price. Barley hay, with the heads on, is in 
California the chief food of horses, and in 
many cases of cattle. A horse for ordinary 
work fed on barley hay gets all the grain 

r necessary. If on account of heavier work, 
stronger food is required, rolled barley is 
given in addition. A large quantity of the 
better graded barley grain raised in the state 
is used by the brewers for malt. 

Corn does not do so well through the state 
in general, but in some locations it is justly 
claimed that a man can ride on horseback down 
the rows of corn without being seen over the 
tops. This, too, the padres brought into the 
state. The tortilla, the common food of the 
Spanish settlers, was made of coarse-ground or 
pounded corn. 

Alfalfa, the wonderful forage plant of dry 
regions of the West, is a member of the clover 



GRAIN 



245 



family. Throughout the southern and middle portion 
of California are large ranches devoted to its culture for 
hay. It is also raised extensively for green feed 
for horses and cattle. It produces from three to six 
crops a year according to location and care given it, 
and is treated for the market much the same as 
barley hay, except that it is generally made into 
smaller bales. Alfalfa is raised by irrigation, the 
best method being from flumes opening into indenta- 
tions, not so deep as furrows, from which the water 
spreads, flooding the whole surface. 

Many a California young man from high school gets 
his first taste of work away from home in the harvest 
fields. Generally this is a good experience for him. He 
receives some pretty hard knocks, and sees the rough 
side of life, but if he has self-control and good principles, 
he will be the better for the venture, returning more 
manly, earnest, and self-reliant. 




B. CAL. 



16 



CHAPTER XIV 



THE GOLDEN APPLES OF THE HESPERIDES 




\ HE orange, like many other of Cali- 
fornia's most valuable products, was 
brought into the country by the 
patient, far-seeing padres. Orange, 
lemon, and citron, those three gay 
cousins of royal blood, traveled to- 
gether, and soon were to be found 
in many of the mission gardens. 
The most extensive of that early 
planting was an orchard at San Gabriel, set out by 
Padre Sanchez in 1804. In the height of its prosperity, 
this mission is recorded as having two thousand three 
hundred and thirty-three fruit trees, a large proportion 
of which were orange trees. San Fernando had sixteen 
hundred trees. San Diego had its orange orchard : 
bow many trees is not recorded, but its olive grove 
numbered five hundred and seventeen flourishing trees. 
Santa Inez had nearly a thousand trees. As early as 
1800 Santa Barbara and San Buenaventura also had 
valuable orchards. 

Outside the missions the first orange trees in any 

number were planted in 1834, the famous Wolf skill 

(grove in 1841. By 1862 there were about twenty-five 

thousand trees of this variety in the state, and two 

246 



ORANGES 



247 




m& 



thirds of these belonged to Wolfskill, of Los Angeles. 
A little later several large orchards were planted in the 
region around the Mission San Gabriel. In Riverside, 
often called the mother of orange culture in the state, 
the first seeds were planted in 1870, the first trees from 
these seeds in 1873, and from that period is dated the 
beginning of extensive plant- 
ing. This was largely the 
work of colonists. About 
the time the orchards came 
into bearing, the Southern 
Pacific and the Santa Fe 
Overland were completed, so that an Eastern market 
was gained for the fruit, with the result that the new 
industry fairly bounded forward. So much was some- 
times made from an acre of trees that it seemed as 
though people could not get land and plant fast enough. 
Occasionally an income was reported of three thousand 
dollars from an acre, and eight hundred to one thousand 
dollars per acre was not an uncommon crop. 

Although at this time there were a few orange 
trees in the middle and northern parts of the state, 
for many years it was supposed that only the 
southern country could raise this fruit suit 
able for the market, but to-day people know \,^^^ 
better. Excellent oranges are grown as far ^ 
north as Shasta, and Butte County, which 
leads in the northern orange culture, has a number of 
large and valuable orchards. From Tulare County and 
other parts of the valley of the San Joaquin, choice 
fruit is being shipped to the markets of the East. From 





248 GOLDEN APPLES OF THE HESPERIDES 

San Diego all the way up the state one may find trees 
of the citrus family flourishing ; still, whether north or 
south, in i^lanting an orange orchard, the greatest care 
has to be taken in the choice of location. Jack Frost 
is the enemy to be avoided, and generally in any strip 
of country the lower lands are the ones he visits first. 
So the highlands are preferred, and even here the cur- 
rents of air must be studied, A strong, uninterrupted, 
downward sweep of air from the snow-covered moun- 
tains will often, at night, drive away the needed warmth 
gathered during the day, so that land protected by 
some mountain spur which makes an eddy in the cur- 
rent is the best for this heat-loving fruit. 

There are several popular varieties of the orange. 
The Valencia late is being planted by many in prefer- 
ence to others because, besides being a fine fruit, 
it keeps well, ripening when the days begin to be 
long and hot, and is therefore doubly welcome. 
The sweet orange from the Mediterranean country, 
and the St. Michael, with its paper rind, are also 
favorites, as are the delicious little Mandarin and 
Tangerine varieties, with their thin skin and high 
flavor ; but the king of them all is the Washington 
navel, which has gained for the state its high 
position as an orange-raising territory. This is not 
a new variety, though many may believe it so. A 
book published in Rome over three hundred years 
ago gives an interesting description and pictures of 
this and other kinds of oranges and the way they 
should be raised. The title of this rare old volume is 
** Hesperidcs, or about the Golden Apples, their Culture 



ORANGES 



249 




and Use." Among its many fine illustrations is one 
of Hercules receiving the golden apples. Another 
shows the bringing of the fruit to Italy by a body 
of nymphs and goddesses in Neptune's car. Mr. 
Charles F. Lummis has translated portions of 
the book in the California magazine Out West. 

On its travels the navel orange finally 
reached Bahia, Brazil, and there, soQie- 
time during the Civil War in the United 
States, a lady who, it is said, was the 
wife of the American consul, discovered 
the deliciousness of this fruit. So 
pleased was she that she determined to 
share her enjoyment with others ; so upon 
her return to her own country, she described this orange 
to Mr. Saunders, head of the government's experimental 
farm at Washington. He became interested in the 
subject, sent to Bahia, and had twelve navel trees 
propagated by budding. These were shipped to Wash- 
ington, where they arrived safely, and were placed in 
the orangery there. They all grew, and from them a 
large number of trees were budded. 

Still they had not reached California. Bringing 
them to the Pacific coast was also the work of a 
woman. Mrs. Tibbetts, wife of a fruit grower of River- 
side, was visiting in Washington and to her Mr. Saunders 
presented two navel orange trees, which she brought 
home with her. They were planted beside her doorstep 
in Riverside. The trees grew rapidly, and when they 
bore fruit it did not take the California orange growers 
long to discover that here they had a treasure of more 




250 GOLDEN APPLES OF THE HESPERIDES 

value than the largest nugget of gold ever found in the 
state. 

It was at a citrus fair in Riverside in 1879 that this 
golden king first appeared before the world. Then 
from all over southern California came orange 
men to get buds from these trees. Back home 
they went with the precious bits of life. Acres 
of seedling oranges were quickly shorn 
of their green crowns. Cut, cut, went 
knife and shears till only the stock was 
left, and then into a carefully made sht in 
the bark was placed the navel bud. It soon 
sprouted, and everywhere one could 
p-<^^^^--^ see the stranger growing sturdily on its 
adopted stem. Thousands of buds were 
sold from the two parent trees until there Avere 
hundreds of thousands of their beautiful children 
growing all over the state, giving golden harvests. 
If we owe to two ladies the success of orange 
culture in CaHfornia, it was a third who saved the 
industry when ruin threatened it. For a while all went 
merrily with the orange grower ; then in some way, from 
Australia, there came into the country an insect pest 
called the cushiony scale, which settled on the orange 
trees and seemed Hkely to destroy them. 
"What can be done to save our trees ? " was 
the cry from the people of the southland. 
What they did was to bring from Australia a 
different visitor, the dainty bug called, the ladybird. 
She was eagerly welcomed. No one dreamed of 
bidding her, in the words of the old nursery rhyme, 





ORANGES 



251 



*'fly away home." She was carried to the diseased 
orchards, where she settled on the scale, and as it was 
her favorite food, she soon had the trees clean , 
again. In time other pests came to 
trouble vine and fruit growers, but it 
is interesting to know that scientists 
nearly always succeeded in finding 
some insect enemy of the trouble- 
some visitor, which would help the 
horticulturist out of his difficulties. 

In the business of orange-grow- 
ing, success is due in a large 
measure to care in the picking, pack- 
ing, and shipping of the fruit — 
care even in those little things that 
seem almost of no consequence. 
The more particular Californians 
are to ship only the best fruit in the best condition 
and properly packed, the higher prices will the fruit 
bring, the higher reputation the state gain. 

The lemon industry comes closely second to 
the orange. This fruit does not need so much 
heat as does the orange, but neither can it 
stand so much cold. It needs more water, but 
it bears more fruit and can be marketed the 
year round. The lemons not sold as fresh fruit 
are made to yield such products as citric acid, d^^^^l^ 
oil of lemon, from which cooking essences are 
made, and candied lemon peel. In this latter branch 
of the trade, however, the citron is more generally used, 
though it is not of so delicate a flavor, 






252 



GOLDEN APPLES OF THE HESPERIDES 



The pomelo, or grape fruit, is fast gaining in favor 
and increasing in value. 

To the stranger who visits California the orange is 
the most interesting of trees. To pick an orange with 
her own hands, and to pin on her breast a bunch 
of the fragrant blossoms, is to an Eastern 
woman one of the most pleasant ex- 
periences of her visit to the Golden 
State. 
In the history of the growth of 
southern California, and especially 
of its orange culture, the use of 
water on the soil plays a prominent 
part. It was the discovery that the 
most sandy and unpromising-looking 
land became a miracle of fertility 
when subjected to the irrigating 
stream, that caused the wonderful prosperity 
of the dry portions of the state. 

Irrigation, which means the turning of water from 
a well, spring, or stream, upon land to promote the 
growth of plant life, has been used by mankind for 
thousands of years. In Colorado, Arizona, and New 
Mexico, there are remains of irrigation canals made by 
people who lived so long ago that we know nothing of 
their history. 

The padres who settled Cahfornia were adepts in this 
science. In founding a mission they always chose its 
site near some stream, the water of which could be 
turned upon the cultivated fields ; and the dams, canals, 
and reservoirs which the padres constructed were so 




IRRIGATION 253 

well built that many of them have lasted until the present 
time. 

It will seem strange to many people to learn that the 
highest-priced, most fertile farm lands in the United 
States are not to be found in the rich valleys of the 
Eastern states or the prairies of the middle West, but in 
the dry region between the Rocky Mountains and the 
Pacific Ocean. Colorado, which belongs to the land of 
little rain, has in proportion to its size the richest mines 
of any state in the Union, yet the product of its farms, 
all irrigated, equals the output of its mineral wealth. 

All the flourishing towns of southern CaUfornia de- 
pend for their wonderful prosperity upon the fertility 
of the irrigated country surrounding them. 

Trees and plants require water for their growth, but 
they do not all need it in like quantity, nor at the same 
time; therefore, the scientific farmer on arid lands, 
where there is an abundance of water for irrigation, 
has an immense advantage over his Eastern brother who 
depends for water upon the rainfall alone. 

While the valuable raisin crop of the Californian is 
drying in the sun and the sHghtest shower would 
damage, or perhaps ruin it, just beyond lies the orange 
orchard, the trees of which are suffering for water. 
The fruit, the size of a large walnut, is still hard and 
green, and must have an abundance of the life-giving 
Hquid if it is to develop into the rich yellow orange, 
filled with dehcious juice, which adorns the New Year's 
market. How would our ranchman prosper if he de- 
pended upon rain .? As it is, he furrows his orchard 
from its highest to its lowest level ; then into the flume 




254 GOLDEN APPLES OF THE HESPERIDES 

which runs parallel with the highest boundary of the 
grove he turns the water from pipe or reservoir, and 
opening the numerous httle slide-doors or sluice-gates of 
the flume, soon has the satisfac- 
'^SiSv^^^-^"' tion of seeing each furrow the 



,^ ,, -,^.. - bed of a running stream, the 

^;^|' water of which sinks slowly, 
'^^^ ^i|8? steadily, down to the roots 

' '' of the thirsty trees. After 
the water has been flowing in 
this manner for some hours, it is shut off, for it has 
done enough work. In a day or two the ranchman 
runs the cultivator over the ground of the orchard, 
leaving the soil fine and crumbly and the trees in perfect 
condition for another six or eight weeks of growth. 

The first attempts of the American immigrant at 
irrigation were very simple — just the making of a 
furrow turning the water of a stream upon his land. 
Then, as he desired to cultivate more land and raise 
larger crops, his ditches had to be longer, often having 
branches. Soon neighbors came in and settled above 
and below him. They too used of the stream; there 
was no law to control selfishness, so there were dis- 
agreements and bitter quarrels over the water. Law- 
suits followed and sometimes even fighting and mur- 
ders. The remedy for this state of things was found 
to be in a company ditch, flume, or reservoir, with the 
use of water controlled by fixed laws. 

There are some crops, notably grapes, which are 
grown without irrigation. The grapevine, instead of 
being treated as a climber, is each year trimmed back 



IRRIGATION 255 

to the main stem, which thus becomes a strong woody 
stalk, often a foot or more in circumference, quite capa- 
ble of withstanding the heat and dryness of the atmos- 
phere and of drawing from the soil all the nourishment 
needed for the fruit. 

Wheat, barley, and oats, both as grain and as hay, are 
largely raised without irrigation. Olives, and many 
deciduous trees, by careful cultivation may flourish with- 
out water other than the rainfall ; yet notwithstanding 
this, for a home in southern California, land without 
a good water-right is of little value. 

The wealth of the region is in a great measure in its 
expensive water system, which, by means of reservoirs, 
dams, ditches, flumes, and pipes, gathers the water from 
the mountain streams and conveys it to the thirsty land 
below. 




CHAPTER XV 

CALIFORNIA'S OTHER CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE 
WORLD S BILL OF FARE 

Y 1874 people in the Eastern states 
had begun to talk of California 
canned fruits. Apricots and the 
large white grape found ready sale, 
but California raisins, though on 
the market, were not in demand. That line from the 
old game *' Malaga raisins are very fine raisins and 
figs from Smyrna are better," represented the idea 
of the public; and figs, raisins, and prunes eaten in 
the United States all came from abroad. But how is it 
to-day ? 

Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners of our Eastern 

friends owe much to CaUfornia. She sends the seedless 

• '/•A^ ,-.,/.." raisins, candied orange and lemon peel, the citron 

-v^^^Vti' '"^ ^"^ b^^^ sugar for the mince pies and plum 

^'"^ri^y :'■■-' puddings. Her cold-storage cars carry to the 

iKx:€i3k^,:!^' winter-bound states the delicious white celery 

of the peat lands, snow-white heads of cauliflower, 

crisp string beans, sweet young peas, green squash, 

cucumbers, and ripe tomatoes. For the salads are 

her olives and fresh lettuce dressed with the golden 

olive oil of the Golden State. Of ripe fruits, she sends 

pears, grapes, oranges, pomegranates. For desserts, 

256 




VARIOUS FRUITS 257 

she supplies great clusters of rich sugary raisins, creamy 
figs, stuffed prunes, and soft-shelled almonds and wal- 
nuts. All these and other delicacies California 
gives toward the holiday making in the East. 

But it is not only to the homes of the 
wealthy that she carries good cheer; 
to people who have very little money to 
spend, and those who are far away from 
civilization, as soldiers, surveyors, wood- 
men, and road-builders, California's prod- 
ucts go to help make palatable fare. 
To these her canned meats, fish, and 
vegetables, and canned and dried fruits, 
are very welcome. 

The canneries and fruit-packing establish- 
ments of the state bring in many millions of 
dollars each year and give employment to a 
host of people, a large number of whom are women 
and young girls. 

Most of the fruits California now raises came into the 
country with the padres. Captain Vancouver tells us that 
he found at the Santa Clara mission, at the 
time of his visit in 1792, a fine orchard con- 
sisting of apples, pears, peaches, plums, 
apricots; and at San Buenaventura all these 




with the addition of oranges, grapes, and j,/'^M/i 
pomegranates. Alfred Robinson describes the '^ 
orchards and vineyards of San Gabriel mission as 
very extensive. Wine and brandy were made at 
most of the missions, San Fernando being especially 
noted for its brandy. Guadalupe Vallejo tells of bananas 





258 CALIFORNIA'S OTHER CONTRIBUTIONS 

plantains, sugar cane, citrons, and date palms growing 
at the southern missions. Palm trees were planted 
** for their fruit, for the honor of St. Francis, and for 
use on Palm Sunday." 

Not only did the padres enjoy fresh fruits from their 
gardens, but raisins were dried from the grapes, citron, 
orange, and lemon peel were candied, and much fruit 
was preserved. It is not recorded that they had pump- 
kin pie in those days, but a small, fine-grained pumpkin 
was raised extensively for preserves. It is 
still a favorite dainty among the native 
Californians, and no Spanish dinner is com- 
plete without this dulce, as it is called. 
Spanish-American housewives excel their 
American sisters in the art of preserving. Pumpkin, 
peach, pear, fig, are all treated in the same manner, 
being first soaked in lye, then thoroughly washed and 
scalded in abundance of fresh water, and then cooked 
in a very heavy sirup. The result of this treatment 
is that the outside of the fruit is crisp and brittle, while 
the inside is creamy and delicious. 

The first of California's dried fruits to come before 
the public was the raisin. Raisins are merely the 
proper variety of grapes suitably dried. Some think 
that they are dipped in sugar, but this is not the fact. 
The only sugar is that contained in the juice of the grape, 
which should be about one fourth sugar. The only 
raisin grape for general use is the greenish variety called 
the Muscat. The rich purple or chocolate color of the 
raisin of the market is caused by the action of the sun 
while the raisin is being cured. If dried in the shade the 



RAISINS 259 

fruit has a sickly greenish hue. The seedless Sultana 
is a small grape, fast coming into favor for a cooking 
raisin. 

The proper planting of a raisin vineyard requires a 
large amount of care and labor. But the summer is 
one long holiday, as there is little to do to the vines 
from early May until August. Then comes picking 
time. From all the country round gather men and 
women, boys and girls, and the work begins. 
To be a successful raisin grower and 
packer, one must take care in all little ^\ "^J' j^'^^^- 
things. The workman who neglects to J^ '' '-^^ 

cut from the branch the imperfect ^./^*^ ; - '-' y 
or bad grapes, or who lays the fruit " ^ ~ 

in the trays so that it will be in heaps or overlapped, 
is apt to be soon discharged. After about a week of 
exposure to the sun and air, the grapes are turned by 
placing an empty tray over a full one, and reversing 
the positions. Then after a few days longer in the 
sun, the fruit goes to the sweat-box, a hundred pounds 
to the box, and is placed in a room in the packing 
house, where it lies about ten days. The bunches go 
into this room unequally dried, with still a look and taste 
of grape about them, but after this sweating process they 
come out uniform in appearance, rich, sugary, tempting, 
— the raisins of commerce, with little suggestion of the 
fruit from which they came. Then they are boxed. 

There are generally three grades : very choice clusters, 
ordinary and imperfect bunches, and loose raisins. 
Raisins of the third class are sent to the stemmer and a 
large proportion of them then go to the seeder. Seeding 



26o CALIFORNIA'S OTHER CONTRIBUTIONS 




raisins for mother and grandmother at holiday times used 
to be the duty and pleasure of the older boys and girls 
of the household. But seeding is 
now done by machinery. A ma- 
chine will seed on an average ten 
tons daily. Before entering the 
seeder the raisins are subjected to 
a thorough brushing, by which 
every particle of dust is removed. 
They are then run through rubber 
rollers which flatten the fruit and 
press the seeds to the surface ; 
then through another pair of roll- 
ers, with wire teeth v^hich catch 
and hold the seeds while the raisins pass on down a 
long chute to the packing room, where women and 
girls box them for market. 

With all fruits the drying process is much the same, 
though peaches, apples, and pears are first peeled. Cali- 
fornia figs, when dried, sell well. This is a fruit which 
is growing in favor, whether fresh, preserved, or dried. 
Fruit canning is an interesting process. The fruit is 
not boiled in sirup and then placed in cans, as 
is frequently the custom in home preserving, 
but when peeled it is placed directly in the cans, 
in which it receives all its cooking and in which 
it is finally marketed. 

The raising of beets and the converting of 
them into sugar form an industry which is grow- 
ing rapidly, and is of the utmost importance to the 
people of the Pacific slope. 




OLIVES AND NUTS 



261 



The canning of fresh vegetables is a new industry 
which is bringing into the state a steady stream of 
money, and in addition is proving a double blessing to 
thousands of people, both those who gain from it their 
living, and those who could not otherwise have vege- 
tables for food. A sailor said recently that if he could 
not be a sailor he would do the next best thing — can 
vegetables for other sailors. When Gal- 
vez received the order from the king of 
Spain to found settlements in Upper 
California, one of the chief reasons for 
so doing was that fresh vegetables might 
be raised for the sailors engaged in the 
Philippine trade. To-day the Philip- 
pines use a large portion of California's 
canned goods. 

In the southern counties olive orchards 
are being extensively planted. Near San 
Fernando is the largest in the world, covering 
thirteen hundred acres. Doctors have said that 
a liberal use of California olive oil will do much 
to promote the good health of mankind, audit is thought 
by many that the manufacture of olive oil will be one 
of the greatest industries the state has known. 

Nut raising is keeping pace with fruit in importance. 
To an Eastern person it seems strange to see nut-bear- 
ing trees cultivated in orchards ; though profitable, this 
method does away with the pleasures of nutting parties. 

California's crystallized fruits are in constant demand, 
especially for the Christmas trade. This crystallizing is 
a process in which the juice is extracted and replaced 

B. CAL. — 17 




262 CALIFORNIA'S OTHER CONTRIBUTIONS 







#• 



with sugar sirup, which hardens and preserves the fruit 
from decay while still keeping the shape. 

One sometimes reads the saying *' Fresno for raisins, 
Santa Clara for cherries and prunes, and the northern 
counties and mountain-ranches for apples." But in 
fact, California's fruit industries are well dis- 
tributed over the state, and the really excel- 
lent work which is being done in all 
sections will still advance as the people 
learn more of the necessary details and 
methods. 

In spite of mistakes and experiments 
the steady progress on the CaUfornia 
ranches is being recognized. Of one 
of our leading fruit growers, Mr. Ellwood Cooper of 
Santa Barbara, the Marquis of Lome writes in the 
YoiitJis Companion: " He has shown that California can 
produce better olive oil than France, Spain, or Italy, and 
English walnuts and European almonds in crops of 
which the old country hardly even dreams." 

A history of California's products would be 
incomplete without a reference to him who is 
called the ''Wonder Worker of Santa Rosa." 
"Magician! Conjurer!" are terms frequently 
applied to Mr. Luther Burbank, the man who is 
acknowledged by the scientists of the world to 
have done more with fruits and flowers than any other 
man. Mr. Burbank waves his wand, and the native 
poppy turns to deepest crimson, the white of the calla 
Hly becomes a gorgeous yellow, rose and blackberry 
lose their thorns, the cactus its spines, the meat of the 





THE WORK OF LUTHER BURBANK 263 

walnut and almond become richer in quality, while their 
shells diminish to the thinness of a knife blade. 

Yet in these seeming miracles there is nothing of 
" black art " or sleight of hand. The experiments of 
this wonderful man, the surprising results he gains, 
are obtained, first by a close study of the laws of 
nature, then, where he desires change and ^^ 
improvement, by assisting her process, often .( 
through years of closest application and ( 
unceasing toil. He is a man of whom it is 
truthfully said, " He has led a life of hard- 
ships, has sacrificed self at every point, that ,^ ^^'''"' ^^^""l 

i^ ' y 1 ' (Cross between raspberry 

he might glorify and make more beautiful the and blackberry.) 
world around him." Any boy or girl who knows some- 
thing of how plants grow and reproduce themselves will 
find great pleasure in following Mr. Burbank's simple 
methods. 

It is only recently that his countrymen have begun 
to appreciate the work of this great naturalist. A 
short time ago a resident of Berkeley, a student and 
book-lover, one who knew Mr. Burbank but had given 
little attention to his productions, was in Paris. While 
there he had the good fortune to be present at a lecture 
deHvered before a gathering of the most eminent 
scientists of Europe. In the course of his address the 
speaker had occasion to mention the name of Luther 
Burbank. Instantly every man in the audience arose 
and stood a moment in silence, giving to the simple 
mention of Mr. Burbank's name the respect usually paid 
to the presence of royalty. It is a name now known in 
all the languages of the civilized world, and numbers of 



264 CALIFORNIA'S OTHER CONTRIBUTIONS 

the wisest of the world's citizens cross the ocean solely 
to visit the busy plant-grower of Santa Rosa. 

Luther Burbank was born in Worcester, Massachu- 
setts, in 1849, and while yet a lad his strongest desire 
was to produce new plants better than the old ones. 
His first experiment was with a vegetable. For the 
sake of getting seed, he planted some Early Rose 
potatoes in his mother's garden. In the whole patch 
only one seed-ball developed, and this he watched with 
constant care. Great was his disappointment, therefore, 
when one morning, just as it was ready to be picked, he 
found that it had disappeared. A careful search failed 
to recover the missing ball, but as he thought the 
matter over, while at work, it struck Luther that per- 
haps a dog had knocked it off in bounding through 
the garden. Looking more carefully for it, he found 
the ball twenty feet away from the vine on which it had 
hung. In it were twenty-three small, well-developed 
seeds. These he planted with great care, and from one 
of them came the first Burbank potatoes. The wealth 
of the country was materially increased by this discovery ; 
the wealth of the boy only to the amount of one hun- 
dred and twenty-five dollars, which he used in attending 
a better school than he had before been able to enjoy. 

In 1875 Mr. Burbank, to secure, as he said, " a climate 
which should be an ally and not an enemy to his work," 
moved to Santa Rosa, CaHfornia. For ten years of 
poverty and severe toil he was engaged, for the sake of 
a livelihood, in the nursery business, making, in the 
meantime, such experiments as he had time for. During 
the next twenty years, however, Mr. Burbank was able 




THE WORK OF LUTHER BURBANK 265 

to give nearly his whole time to his nature-studies. His 
energy is tireless, and his aim is to supply to humanity 
something for beauty, sustenance, or commerce better 
than it has possessed. 

Perhaps among all his productions the greatest good 
to the world will arise from the spineless cactus. The 
scourge of the American desert is the cactus, commonly 
known as the prickly pear, the whole surface 
of which is covered with fine, needlelike spines, 
while its leaves are filled with a woody fiber most 
hurtful to animal life. • When eaten by hunger- ^ 
crazed cattle it causes death. After years of labor ^ 
Mr. Burbank has succeeded in developing from this most 
unpromising of plants a perfected cactus which is truly 
a storehouse of food for man and beast. Spines and 
woody fiber have disappeared, leaving juicy, pear-shaped 
leaves, weighing often twenty-five or fifty pounds, which, 
when cooked in sirup, make a delicious preserve, and 
in their natural state furnish a nourishing, thirst- 
quenching food for domestic animals. The fruit 
of this immense plant is aromatic and delicate, 
and its seeds are at present worth far more than 
their weight in gold, since from them are to spring 
thousands of plants by means of which it is 
believed the uninhabitable portions of the desert 
may be made to support numberless herds of cattle. 

Another of Mr. Burbank's achievements is the 
evergreen crimson rhubarb, which is not only far less 
acid than the old variety, but richer in flavor and a 
giant in size. 

The pomato, a tomato grown on a potato plant, is 




266 CALIFORNIA'S OTHER CONTRIBUTIONS 

most interesting. The plant is a free bearer, having a 
white, succulent, delicious fruit, admirable when cooked, 
used in a salad, or eaten fresh as our other fruit. 

The experiments with prunes conducted at the Santa 
Rosa ranch have been of the greatest value to the state. 
For forty years the prune growers of the Pacific slope 
had been searching for a variety of this fruit which 
would be as rich in sugar and as abundant a bearer 
as the little California prune of commerce, and yet of a 
larger size, and earlier in its time of ripening. Mr. 
Burbank with his famous sugar prune filled all these 
requirements, and revolutionized the prune industry of 
the state. Besides this triumph he has succeeded in 
obtaining a variety of this fruit having a shell-less 
kernel, so that the fruit when dried much re- 
sembles those which are artificially stuffed. 

The flowers which Mr. Burbank has evolved 

by his methods, and those which he has simply 

enlarged and glorified, are far too numerous to 

BuRBANK's ^Q named here. 
Shasta Daisy 

In 1905 a grant of ten thousand dollars a year 

was bestowed upon Mr. Burbank by the Carnegie 

Institution of Washington, D.C., for the purpose of 

assisting him in his experiments. Seldom has money 

been better placed. 




CHAPTER XVI 

THE HIDDEN TREASURES OF MOTHER EARTH 




HOUSANDS of years ago, before 
the time of which we have any 
history, there were rivers in Cali- 
fornia, — rivers now dead, — whose 
sides were steeper and whose channels were wider than 
those of the rivers in the same part of the world 
to-day. Rapid streams they were, and busy, too; 
washing away from the rocks along their sides the 
gold held there, dropping the yellow grains down 
into the gravelly beds below. After a time there 
came down upon these rivers a volcanic outflow ; great 
quantities of ashes, streams of lava and cement, burying 
them hundreds of feet deep, until over them mountain 
ridges extended for miles and miles. 

Other changes in the earth's surface took place, and 
in the course of time our streams of to-day were formed. 
As they cut their way through the mountain ranges, 
some of them crossed the channels of old dead rivers, 
and finding the gold hidden there, carried some of it 

267 



V. 



268 HIDDEN TREASURES OF MOTHER EARTH 

along, rolling it over and over, mixed with sand and 
gravel, down into the lower lands under the bright sun- 
light. Here it was found by Marshall and the gold 
hunters who followed him. These were the placer 
mines of which we read in Chapter VII. 

Gradually the best placer mines were taken up and 
the newcomers to the gold fields traced the precious 
metal up the streams into the gravel of the hillsides. 
Then was begun hydraulic mining, where water did the 
work. In the canons great dams were constructed to 
%t^>'ariL catch the flow from the melting snows of the moun- 
v\|,#i(^J^J'n|l\^^ ^j^^^ tains, and miles of flumes were built to 

carry the water to the mining grounds. 
' Immense pipes were laid and altogether 
millions of dollars were invested in hydraulic 
^^^^ ' .v , i„ mining. The water coming down under 

^:|^\^^^^^.^^ -^^J^^.^ heavy pressure from the mountain 
//( ^''^^'^^''\^M^^^ reservoirs passed through giant hose 
fSjfit'f' ''^'^ h'' which would carry a hundred miner's 

^ ^Jl<iijli^^ inches, and, striking the mountain side with 
f'.i' terrific force, washed away the earth from the 

rocks. Down fell the sand and gravel into sluices or 
boxes of running water where cleats and other arrange- 
ments caught and held the gold, which was heavy, while 
the lighter mixture was carried out into the canon. 

The material thus dumped on the mountain side was 
called debris, and to any one living in the mining region 
of the state that word means trouble — means fighting, 
lawsuits, ruin. For the debris did not stay up in the 
canon, but was washed down into the rivers, overflowing 
farm lands, spoiling crops and orchards, and making the 




MODERN MINES 



269 



streams shallow, their waters muddy. So great was the 
destruction this process caused that, in 1893, the Con- 
gress of the United States enacted a law which provided 
for the creation of a Debris Commission to regulate the 
business of hydraulic mining in California. The result 
of the investigations of this commission was to put a stop 
to all hydrauHc mining in territory drained by the San 
Joaquin and Sacramento rivers, or any other territory 
where the use of this form of mining should injure the 
river systems or lands adjacent. Thus, almost in a 
moment, the important industry was stopped. 

It is estimated that over one hundred million dollars 
were invested in hydraulic mining. Much of this was 
entirely lost, as the expensive machinery rusted and the 
water system fell into ruins. It was very hard for the 
miners, as well as for the commerce of the state, but the 
act of the government was based upon the principle 
that one man's business must not damage another man's 
property. Clever engineers in the pay of 
the government are still trying to find 
some way by which the debris can be 
safely disposed of in order that this 
valuable system may resume operation. 

Deprived of the use of water as their 
agent, gold hunters next tried mining by 
drifts; that is, by tunneling into the 
mountain's side until the bed of a buried ; ■ 
river is reached. These tunnels are often 
five thousand to eight thousand feet long, 
is brought out of the ground before it is washed clean 
of the gravel. Sometimes it is mixed with cement, when 




The gold 



2/0 HIDDEN TREASURES OF MOTHER EARTH 

it has to be crushed in rollers before it can be cleared 
of other material. The counties where drift mining is 
most in operation are Placer, Nevada, and Sierra. 

Quartz mining is the most expensive manner of get- 
ting out gold, and a great deal of valuable and compli- 
cated machinery has been invented for this branch 
of the business. The quartz mines of CaUfornia are 
among the richest in the world, and some of the 
greatest fortunes of modern times have been made 
from them. 

In a mine of this kind there is generally a shaft, or 
opening, extending straight down into the earth, from 
which, at different levels, passageways branch out where 
the veins of gold are richest. The 
openings must be timbered 
-^^ to prevent caving in, and 
^" there must be pumps to 
^^"^* remove the water as well 
^-,^ as hoisting works to take 

^^ ^^xPv'S^ out the material. Then on 
:%^^,^^|^_ the surface, as near as pos- 

sible to the mouth of the mine, 
must be located the quartz mill. When possible, a tun- 
nel is used in this mining, which makes the handling of 
ore less expensive, for then there need be no hoisting 
works or pumps, since the tunnel drains itself. 

Gold in quartz rock is generally in ledges or veins, 
one to three feet in width. Digging it out is not very 
hard, save where there is not enough room to stand 
upright and use the pick, or when, in a shaft deep in 
the ground, the heat makes it difficult to work. A Cali- 




MODERN MINES 2/1 

fornia boy at the mines wrote recently : ** Mining is not 
so bad; that is, if I could get along without the occa- 
sional whack I bestow upon my left hand. Last week 
I started a Uttle tunnel and pounded my hand so that it 
swelled up considerably. DrilHng is not hard, and load- 
ing is a snap, but it's all interesting work and there is 
the excitement of seeing what you are going to find 
next." 

When the ore reaches the surface it is sent to the 
mill, where it is first pulverized, then mixed with a chemi- 
cal which goes about catching up the grains of gold — 
arresting and holding them fast. It is quite a long 
process before the gold is completely separated from 
all other material and ready for shipment. Often the 
quartz contains other minerals of value, the separation 
of which requires much work. 

There is a very rich mine in Nevada called the 
Comstock, which some years ago had sunk its shafts 
so deep into the earth that it became almost impossible 
for the miners to work on account of the great heat, the 
bad air, and the quantity of water which had constantly 
to be pumped out. How these troubles were remedied 
is the story of one of California's greatest and best 
citizens. Adolph Sutro was a Prussian by birth, and 
his adopted state may well be proud to claim him. He 
had built a little quartz mill in Nevada, near the Com- 
stock mine. Seeing the suffering of the workmen in all 
the mines on that mountain side, he thought of a plan 
for the construction of a large tunnel which was to be- 
gin at a low level at the nearest point of the Carson 
River and run deep into the mountain so that it could 



2/2 



HIDDEN TREASURES OF MOTHER EARTH 



drain all the rich mining section, give good ventilation 
for the deep underground works, and afford a much 
cheaper and more convenient way of taking care of the 
ore. It was to be four miles long, with 
branches extending from it to different 
mines. Its height was to be ten feet ; 
width, twelve, with a drainage trench in 
the center to carry away the waste water 
to the Carson River, and tracks on each 
side for the passage of mules and cars. 
At first the mine owners were pleased 
I with the project, and Mr. Sutro suc- 
ceeded in forming a company to build 
the tunnel. Then he went to Washing- 
ton, where the government became so 
interested in his plans that on July 25, 
1866, there was passed an act of Con- 
gress granting Sutro such privileges in 
regard to public lands as would safe- 
guard his work. About the time that the news of this 
action reached the West, the men who owned the 
mines and had made an arrangement for the use of 
the tunnel, decided that they did not want the work 
done ; it is said, for the reason that they found Mr. 
Sutro too wise and far-seeing for them to be able to 
manage him. At all events, with all their wealth and 
power they tried to ruin him. They said that his plans 
were worthless, and any one was foolish to invest in the 
tunnel company. Then Mr. Sutro, by means of lectures 
upon the subject, appealed to the people. In California, 
Nevada, the Eastern states, and even Europe, he told 




MODERN MINP:S 



273 



what his plans would do for the miners and the good 
of the country. It was not long before he gained all 
the help he needed, and the great work was begun. 

As the workmen progressed into the mountain side 
there were many difficulties to overcome. Day and 
night without ceasing the work went on. Laborers 
would faint from the combined heat and bad air, and 
be carried to the outer world to be revived. Carpen- 
ters followed the drillers, trackmen coming closely 
after. Loose rock, freshly blasted, was tumbled into 
waiting cars and hauled away over rails laid perhaps 
but half an hour before. Constantly in the front was 
Sutro himself, coat flung aside, sleeves rolled up. In 
the midst of the flying dirt, great heat, bad air, dripping 
slush, and slippery mud he worked side by side with 
the grimy, half-naked miners, thus showing himself 
capable not only of planning a great work, but of seeing 
personally that it was well done, no matter with what 
sacrifice to his own ease and comfort. 

After the tunnel was completed, Mr. Sutro sold his 
interest in it for several millions of dollars. How that 
money was expended, any visitor to San Francisco well 
knows. With it were built the great Sutro baths, with 
their immense tanks of pure and constantly changing, 
tempered ocean water, their many dressing rooms, 
their grand staircases, adorned with rare growing 
plants, their tiers of seats rising in rows, one above 
another, with room for thousands of spectators, and 
their galleries of pictures and choice works of art. 
Over all is a roof of steel and tinted glass. Nowhere 
else in America is there so fine a bathing establishment. 



274 HIDDEN TREASURES OF MOTHER EARTH 

Besides this there are the lovely gardens of Sutro 
Heights, developed by Mr. Sutro's money and genius 
from the barren sand-hills of the San Miguel rancho. 
In addition to these is the choice library of about two 
hundred thousand volumes, which is of great use to the 
people of San Francisco. Perhaps neither San Fran- 
cisco nor California has yet quite appreciated the value 
of the work of Adolph Sutro. 

Since 1S48 the state of California has sent to the 
United States Mint over one biUion dollars in gold. Of 
this, little Nevada County, which seems to be worth 
literally her weight in gold, has sent over two hundred 
and forty miUion. The Empire Mine is the leading 
producer of California, but there are others nearly as 
rich. Nevada City is in the center of this mining 
country. The streets are very hilly, and after a heavy 
rain people may be seen searching the city gutters and 
newly-formed rivulets for gold, and they are sometimes 
rewarded by finding fair-sized nuggets washed down 
from the hills above. 

A visitor to one of the deep mines of California 
says : — 

" We descended to the seven hundred foot level, 
where the day before a pile of ore had been blasted 
down. A little piece of the quartz, crushed in a mortar 
panned out four dollars in gold. I picked out one 
piece of rock, not larger than a peach, and the man- 
ager, after weighing and testing it, announced that it 
contained ten dollars in free gold. The kick of a boot 
would reveal ore which showed glittering specks of 
pure gold." 



2/6 HIDDEN TREASURES OF MOTHER EARTH 



In the estimate of many people all very valuable 
mines are supposed to be of gold, but this is a mistake. 
While gold is king in Cahfornia, copper mining is 
rapidly becoming of great importance. A continuous 
copper belt, the largest yet discovered in the world, 
exists under her soil, and while a comparatively small 
depth has been so far attained, the profit has been 
considerable. One of the largest quicksilver mines in 
the world is at New Almaden. The value of the 
output of the borax mines is over a million 
dollars a year. There were mined in California 
in 1907 over fifty different materials, most of 
them at a value of several thousand dollars a 
year, with some as high as a million and over. 

The mineral product next in value to gold 
is petroleum, which has added greatly to the 
wealth of the state. Natural gas and 
~ mineral waters are also valuable com- 
mercial products. 

To many, the most interesting class 
^' among minerals is the gems, of which 
California yields a variety. The beautiful 
lilac stone, Kunzite, was discovered near Pala, 
San Diego County. This county has also some fine 
specimens of garnets, and beautiful tourmalines are 
being mined at a profit. San Bernardino County yields 
a superior grade of turquoise from which has been 
realized as much as eleven thousand dollars a year. 
Chrysoprase is being mined in Tulare County, also the 
beautiful new green gem something like clear jade, 
called Californite. Topaz, both blue and white, is being 





MODERN MINES 



277 



found, and besides these, many diamonds of good quality 
have been collected, principally from the gravels of the 
hydraulic mines. In 1907 there was discovered in the 
mountains of San Benito County a beautiful blue stone 
closely resembling sapphire, more brilliant but less 
durable. It was named, by professors of mineralogy in 
the state university, Benitite, from the place where it 
was discovered. 

Perhaps the most valuable of all the products of 
California is its water supply, either visible as in springs 




L 



Carrying Machinery to the Kern River 



and streams, or underground as in artesian water. Of 
its use in irrigation, we have already spoken. In the 
production of electricity it is coming to be of the greatest 
importance, making possible the most stupendous works 
of modern times. Such is the undertaking of the Edi- 



B. CAL. 



18 



278 HIDDEN TREASURES OF MOTHER EARTH 

son Electric Company in bringing down to Los Angeles, 
over many miles of the roughest country, power from 
the Kern River, tapping the tumultuous stream far up 
in the Sierras. The taking of the necessary machinery 
to those heights was in itself a wonderful labor. The 
power thus created is a blessing to a wide region. 



m. 


rx} 




K 


Mx>i 



CHAPTER XVII 

FROM LA ESCUELA OF SPANISH CALIFORNIA TO THE 
SCHOOLS OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY 

N no line has California advanced 
so far beyond the days of the padres 
as in her schools. In the early 
settlements there were no educated 
people but the priests at the mis- 
sions and the Spanish officers with 
their families at the presidios. Later, 
clever men of good families came into the territory, 
took up land, and made their homes on the great 
ranches, but among these there were few who would 
take the time or trouble to teach the children ; so 
life to the young people was a long holiday. The 
sad result was that they grew up so ignorant as to 
astonish the educated strangers who visited the coast. 
At the missions the padres had schools where they 
taught the young Indians something of reading and 
writing, religious services and songs, and the trades nec- 
essary for life. This, with their duties in the church 
and the extensive building and planting of the mission 
settlements, took all the time of the hard-working priests. 
Occasionally, an educated woman would teach her 
own children and those of her relatives, but Hke most 
attempts at home education, it was so interrupted as 
to amount to little. 

279 



280 THE SCHOOLS OF CALIFORNIA 

In 1794 a new governor came from Spain who was 
so shocked at this state of affairs that he at once ordered 
three schools opened. The first, December, 1794, was 
held in a granary at San Jose and was in charge of a re- 
tired sergeant of the Spanish army. The children had 
been so long free from all restraint that they did not 
like to go to school, and their parents did not always 
take the trouble to insist. There were some reasons for 
this, as the masters did not know much about what they 
were trying to teach, and the use of the ferule and 
scourge (the latter a whip of cords tipped with iron) 
was frequent and cruel. There were no books but 
primers, and these were hard to obtain. The writing 
paper was furnished by the military authorities and had 
to be returned when the child was through with it, that 
it might be used in making cartridges. These schools 
were for boys only, girls not being expected to learn 
anything except cooking, sewing, and embroidery. 

Slowly the state of things improved, and in 1829 in the 
yearly report to the Mexican government, it was stated 
that there were eleven primary schools in the province 
with three hundred and thirty-nine boys and girls. One 
of the best of these schools was that of Don Ignacio 
Coronel of Los Angeles. 

In 1846 the first American school was opened at 
Santa Clara by Mrs. Oliver Mann Isbell. It provided 
for children from about twenty emigrant families and 
was held in a room of the Santa Clara mission on the 
great patio. The floor was of earth, the seats boxes ; 
an opening in the tiled roof over the center of the room 
allowing the smoke to escape when, on rainy days, a 



EARLY SCHOOLS 28l 

fire was built on a rude platform of stones set in the 
middle of the floor. Wherever the Americans lived, 
they would have schools, although their first buildings 
were bare and inconvenient, with no grace or adornment 
either inside or out. In some out-of-the-way places, 
whole terms of school were spent most happily under 
spreading live oaks. 

In the making of the first constitution, educational 
matters were not forgotten ; one section providing that 
there should be a common school system supported by 
money from the sale of public lands. On account of the 
minerals the lands so allotted were supposed to contain, 
it was believed that they would sell for such vast 
amounts that the state would have money sufficient for 
the grandest public schools that ever existed. In fact, 
these lands brought in altogether, after a number of 
years, less than a quarter of a million dollars. The act 
provided also that the schools be kept open three 
months in the year. An effort was made to extend this 
period to six months, but was defeated by Senator 
Gwin. 

Considering the state of the country when the public 
schools were begun, and the short time in which they 
have been developed, the California free schools are a 
credit to the state and to the men and women who have 
helped to make them what they are. No community is 
so poor and remote but that it may have its school if 
the inhabitants choose to organize for the purpose. 
Hardly can the settler find a ranch from which his 
children may not attend a district school over which 
floats the stars and stripes. 



282 THE SCHOOLS OF CALIFORNIA 

Money for educational purposes is now raised by state 
and county taxes on property, this sum, in cities, being 
largely increased by the addition of the city taxes. 
High schools have only recently been given state aid, 
and that moderately ; the larger ones still depending, in 
a great measure, upon the special tax of the city, district, 
or county, according to the class to which the school 
belongs. The state supports one Polytechnic school, 
that at San Luis Obispo, where there are three courses, 
agriculture, mechanics, and domestic science. 

About 1878, in the endeavor to teach the children of 
the worst parts of San Francisco a right way of living, 
the free kindergartens were begun. Perhaps their suc- 
cess cannot be better shown than in the fact that in the 
first year of the work along " Barbary coast," one of the 
most turbulent districts of the city, the Italian fruit and 
vegetable dealers who lived there, brought the teachers 
a purse of seventy-five dollars, because the children had 
been taught not to steal their fruits and vegetables or to 
break their windows. The first free kindergarten was 
started on Silver Street in *' Tar Flats " and had for its 
teacher a pretty young girl, with beautiful eyes and a 
mass of bronze-colored hair, whom the ragged little 
urchins soon learned to adore. That little school was 
the beginning of one of the best kindergarten systems 
in the country, and the pretty young teacher is now 
Kate Douglas Wiggin, one of America's best loved 
writers, the author of those delightful books, "The 
Birds' Christmas Carol," " Timothy's Quest " and others 
equally interesting. There have been many gifts to 
these kindergartens. In memory of their only son, Mr. 



MODERN SCHOOLS 



283 



and Mrs. Leland Stanford gave one hundred thousand 
dollars, while Mrs. Phoebe Hearst supported entirely 
three of the schools. Kin- 
dergartens may now form ^ 
part of the primary depart- 
ment in the school system 
of any community so desir- 
ing, and are to be found in 
most of the cities. 

Nothing in the educa- 
tional work of California is 
of more importance than the 

five normal schools, which graduate each year hundreds 
of teachers thoroughly prepared in all branches for the 
important work of training the children of the state. 

As the crown of the free school system, stands the 
state university at Berkeley. Many an interesting 







State Normal School, Los Angeles 



'^ 







^i: 




University of California 



story might be told of the noble men, who as early as 
1849 began their long struggle to gain for the youth of 



284 THE SCHOOLS OF CALIFORNIA 

California the chance for higher education. The Rev- 
erend Samuel Willey, the American consul Mr. Lar- 
kin, and Mr. Sherman Day were leaders in this 
enterprise. There was much against them; men's 
thoughts were almost entirely given to the necessities 
of everyday life, and few seemed able to see that a 
grand and beautiful future was coming to the new 
territory. The university secured its charter in 1868, 
but it was not until the adoption of the new constitution 
in 1879 that it was placed on a firm basis which could 
not be changed by each new legislature. 

The coming of Mr. Benjamin Ide Wheeler to the 
presidency was one of the best strokes of fortune the 
institution has ever known. Under his management it 
has taken a great stride forward. In the work it does, 
and the high standard it demands, it takes its place side by 
side with the best universities of the older Eastern states. 
The work of its college of agriculture is becoming of 
great service to the farmer and fruit grower. The 

result of its experiments in 
determining the best wheat 
for the soil is of very great 
importance to the grain in- 
dustry of the state. 

Connected with the univer- 
sity are : the Lick Observa- 
tory on Mount Hamilton ; the 

Lick Observatory tv/t 1 tt i • t .-•4. ^ £ 

Mark Hopkms Institute of 

Art, the Hastings College of Law, and Colleges of 

Medicine, Dentistry, and Pharmacy, in San Francisco ; 

^nd an admirable University Extension Course which 




UNIVERSITIES 



285 



offers its advantages to the people of any locality 
throughout the state who may desire its help. 

One of the most practical and important associations 
in the state is the Farmer's Institute, which, undfer direc- 
tion and control of the university, holds a three days' 
meeting once a month in each locality throughout the 
state. Also, once a year, an institute of a week's dura- 
tion is held at Berkeley, where eminent scientists give 
their services, and the results are most helpful. 

The university has received many gifts from dis- 
tinguished citizens. Mrs. Phoebe Hearst has devoted 




Leland Stanford Junior University 



much of her time and a large amount of her money to 
its improvement, and plans are under way to make it 
the most finished and beautiful educational institution 
ever owned by any state or country. 

Barely one hour's ride from San Francisco south, 
lies the Leland Stanford Junior University, which at 



286 THE SCHOOLS OF CALIFORNIA 

the time of its foundation, in 1885, was the greatest gift 
ever bestowed upon humanity by any one person. In 
this noble movement Mr. and Mrs. Stanford were as 
one. Their only son died in 1884, and the university 
is a memorial of him, a grand example of the way in 
which those who are dead may yet live, through the 
good done in their names. Although entirely a private 
benefaction, its doors are open to students absolutely 
free of all tuition charges. 

This university started with a large endowment, but 
after the death of Mr. Stanford, a lawsuit with the 
United States, and a shrinkage in the value of the 
properties it owned, ran the finances so low that for a 
short time it was found necessary to charge a small en- 
trance fee. Even then, the college was kept open only 
through the economy and self-sacrifice of Mrs. Stanford 
and the members of the faculty, who stood by the insti- 
tution with noble unselfishness. By the year 1906 the 
financial condition had become satisfactory and the at- 
tendance had materially increased. Two handsome new 
buildings, one for the library and the other for the 
gymnasium, were about completed when, on April 18, 
an earthquake, the most destructive ever experienced on 
the Pacific coast, shook all the region around San Fran- 
cisco Bay. Stanford suffered severely : the two new 
buildings were ruined ; so, too, was the museum and a 
portion of the chemistry building. Both the noble arch 
and the mosaics in the front of the memorial chapel 
were destroyed. Beyond this, comparatively little dam- 
age was done to the college buildings. The graduating 
exercises were postponed until the fall term ; otherwise 



UNIVERSITIES 287 

the disaster did not interfere seriously with the routine 
of study, neither did it affect the attendance in 1906-7, 
which was unusually large. In the fall of 1907 Presi- 
dent Jordan stated that he was empowered to announce 
that Thomas Weldon Stanford, brother of Senator Le- 
land Stanford, had decided to give the university his 
own large fortune of several milUons. 

It is generally recognized that the university owes 
a great part of its present success to the splendid tal- 
ents and faithfulness of President Jordan, who has 
given the hardest labor of the best years of his busy 
life to helping it onward and upward. Its educational 
work is thorough, and its requirements are being steadily 
raised. It stands for the highest education that is pos- 
sible. Addition is constantly being made to its group 
of noble buildings. Beautiful Stanford is the sparkUng 
jewel in California's diadem. 

Not far from the University of California in the 
suburbs of Oakland is situated Mills College, which for 
many years w^as the only advanced school for girls of 
which the state could boast. This institution had its be- 
ginning as a seminary in Benicia, but was moved to its 
present situation in 187 1. In 1885 it became a college 
with a state charter. In plan of studies and high 
Christian aim, it resembles Mount Holyoke, from which 
many of its leading instructors have been graduated. 

There is no place here to speak of all the leading 
private schools of the state. Throop Polytechnic in 
Pasadena, the Thatcher School in the valley of the 
Ojai, and Belmont Military Academy are among the 
best, A word, however, must be said in tribute to 



288 



THE SCHOOLS OF CALIFORNIA 



Santa Clara College, without which the CaHfornia 
youth of from twenty to forty years ago would have 
been lacking in that higher education which stands for 
so much in the making of a state. Incorporated in 
1 85 1, it was opened with funds amounting to but one 
hundred and fifty dollars, yet it grew steadily. With 

n /'^^ — 



'xMW' 





^^^: 






BiBsaiJSM'JW-i 





Santa Clara College 



a clever Jesuit faculty, this college has done admirable 
work of so thorough a character as to win the praise 
of all those who have come in contact with its results. 
From it have been graduated such men as Stephen M. 
White, Reginaldo del Valle, and many other of our 
leading professional and business men. 



CHAPTER XVIII 

STATISTICS 

The state of California lies between the parallels 32° 
and 42° north latitude, extending over a space repre- 
sented on the eastern coast by the country between 
Edisto Inlet, South Carolina, and the northern point of 





Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Its northern third lies be- 
tween 120° and 124° 26' west longitude. From Cape 
Mendocino, its most westerly point, the coast trends 
southeastward to San Diego Bay. The total coast line 
on the Pacific is 1200 miles. 

The state's greatest width is 235 miles, which is 
between Point Conception and the northern end of the 
Amaragosa Range on the Nevada Hne. It is narrowest 
between Golden Gate and the southern end of Lake 
Tahoe. Its area is 158,297 sq. miles, second only to 
Texas of all the states and territories. 

The population of CaHfornia, according to the United 
States census of 1900, is 1,485,053, which has since 
been greatly increased. The following table shows the 
counties of the State : — 

289 



?90 



COUNTIES OF CALIFORNIA 



COUNTIES OF CALIFORNIA 





Origin and 
Meaning 


Area 

SQ. MI. 


Population 


Valuation 

OF 

Property 


County Seat 


Name 








OF Name 


1900 


1907 


(1903) 




Alameda . . 


Sp., Shaded 
promenade 


764 


130,197 


350,000 


128,681,766 


Oakland 


Alpine . . . 




710 


509 


700 


422,063 


Marklesville 


Amador . . 


Sp., Sweetheart 


632 


11,116 


12,009 


4,918,908 


Jackson 


Butte , . . 


Fr., Rounded, 
detached hill 


1,660 


17,117 


27,000 


16,057,766 


Orovllle 


Calaveras . . 


Sp., Skulls 
(from Indian 
battle ground) 


1,080 


11,200 


15,000 


6,177,285 


San Andreas 


Colusa . . . 


Ind. 


1,088 


7,364 


8,000 


12,188,096 


Colusa 


Contra Costa . 


Sp., Opposite 
coast 


728 


18,046 


25,000 


21,753,956 


Martinez 


Del Norte . . 


Sp.,Ofthe 
North 


992 


2,408 


2,648 


2,882,445 


Crescent City 


Eldorado . . 


Sp., The gilded 
(name given to 
fabled land of 
gold) 


1,796 


8,986 


9,884 


4,668,840 


Placerville 


Fresno . . . 


Sp., Ash tree 


6,152 


37,862 


42,760 


34,302,205 


Fresno 


Glenn . . . 




1,270 


5,150 


6,000 


10,645,524 


Willow 


Humboldt . . 


(named for 
Baron von 
Humboldt) 


3,496 


27,104 


33,500 


24,911,492 


Eureka 


Imperial . . 




4,200 




12,000 




El Centre 


Inyo . . . 




10,294 


4,377 


4,814 


2,316,319 


Independence 


Kern . . . 




8,050 


16,480 


25,000 


24,050,871 


Bakersfield 


Kings . . . 




1,176 


9,871 


14,000 


7,883,009 


Hanford 


Lake . . . 




1,328 


6,017 


8,750 


3,258,020 


Lakeport 


Lassen . . . 




4,520 


4,5" 


5,000 


4,590,748 


Susanville 


Los Angeles . 


Sp., The angels 


4,202 


170,298 


350,000 


169,268,166 


Los Angeles 


Madera . . 


Sp., Timber 


2,062 


6,364 


8,000 


6,732,495 


Madera 


Marin . . . 


Ind. 


549 


15,702 


17,000 


14,489,582 


San Rafael 


Mariposa . . 


Sp , Butterfly 


1,510 


4,720 


5,192 


2,270,146 


Mariposa 


Mendocino 


Sp. (from Men- 
doza, viceroy 
of Mexico) 


3,626 


20,465 


30,500 


13,131,995 


Ukiah 


Merced. . . 


Sp., Mercy 


i>932 


9,215 


12,000 


14,877,086 


Merced 


Modoc . . . 


Ind. 


3,741 


5,076 


4,986 


4,076,680 


Alturas 


Mono . . . 


Sp., Monkey, 
or pretty 


3,020 


2,167 


2,383 


1,151,109 


Bridgeport 


Monterey . . 


Sp., King's 
forest 


3,340 


19,380 


24,000 


18,962,554 


Salinas 


Napa . . . 


Ind. 


780 


16,451 


19,014 


13,840,291 


Napa 


Nevada . . . 


Sp., Heavy fall 
of snow 


972 


17,789 


25,000 


7,203,349 


Nevada City 



COUNTIES OF CALIFORNIA 29] 

COUNTIES OF CALIFORNIA— Con^m7ied 





Origin and 




Population 


Valuation 






Meaning 


Area 

SQ. MI. 






OF 

Property 


County Seat 


Name 








OF Name 




1900 


1907 


(1903) 




Orange . . . 


(named for its 
chief product) 


750 


19,696 


30,320 


13,812 


Santa Ana 


Placer . . . 


Sp., Loose 
(from placer 
mines) 


1,365 


15,786 


17,364 


9,677,724 


Auburn 


Plumas . . . 


Sp., Feathers 


2,694 


4,657 


5,122 


2,792,091 


Quincy 


Riverside . . 




7,323 


17,897 


23,936 


16,373,296 


Riverside 


Sacramento . 


Sp , The Sacra- 
ment 


1,000 


45,915 


60,000 


41,333,337 


Sacramento 


San Benito 


Sp.St Benedict 


1,388 


6,633 


9,800 


6,499,068 


Hollister 


San Bernardino 


Sp., St. Bernard 


19,947 


27,929 


40,000 


21,392,228 


San Bernardino 


San Diego 


Sp., St. James 


4,278 


35,090 


43,000 


20,807,594 


San Diego 


San Francisco 


Sp , St Francis 
(of Assisi) 


47 


342,782 


428,000 


564,070,301 


San Francisco 


San Joaquin . 


Sp., name of a 
saint 


1,396 


35,452 


47,000 


34,740,353 


Stockton 


San Luis Obispo 


Sp., St. Louis 
the Bishop 


3,310 


16,637 


25,000 


13,680,235 


San Luis Obispo 


San Mateo 


Sp, St. Matthew 


434 


12,094 


18,000 


18,999,564 


Redwood City 


Santa Barbara 


Sp , St. Barbara 


2,632 


18,934 


25,000 


18,849,976 


Santa Barbara 


Santa Clara . 


Sp., name of a 
saint 


1,286 


60,216 


90,000 


61,390,817 


San Jose 


Santa Cruz 


Sp., Holy Cross 


424 


21,512 


27,000 


12,560,071 


Santa Cruz 


Shasta . . . 


Fr., Chaste, 
pure 


3,876 


17,318 


19,049 


10,902,036 


Redding 


Sierra . . . 


Sp., Sawtoothed 
ridge 


960 


4,017 


4,418 


1,844,560 


Downieville 


Siskiyou . . 




5,991 


16,962 


20,000 


10,560,650 


Yreka 


Solano . . . 


Sp., name of a 
mission 


900 


24,143 


26,555 


20,195,481 


Fairfield 


Sonoma . . 


Ind., Valley of 
the moon 


1,620 


38,480 


54,855 


30,380,419 


Santa Rosa 


Stanislaus . . 




1,456 


9,550 


23,200 


12,834,108 


Modesto 


Sutter . . . 


(namedfor J. A. 
Sutter) 


622 


5,886 


6,474 


6,621,047 


Yuba City 


Tehama . . 




3,008 


10,996 


18,500 


11,674,562 


Red Bluff 


Trinity . . . 




3,282 


4,383 


4,711 


1,651,362 


Weaverville 


Tulare . . . 


Sp., Reed-cov- 
ered 


4,952 


18,375 


25,000 


17,447,042 


Visalia 


Tuolumne . 


Ind., Stone wig- 
wams 


2,208 


11,166 


12,282 


7,089,725 


Sonora 


Ventura . . 


Sp. 


1,721 


^4,367 


20,000 


11,171,219 


Ventura 


Yolo .... 


Ind., Rushes 


996 


13,618 


14,500 


17,640,436 


Woodland 


Yuba . . . 


Sp., Uba, wild 














grapes 


636 


8,620 


9,480 


5,898,350 


Marysville 



292 



LIST OF GOVERNORS 



LIST OF GOVERNORS 



Gaspar de Portold, April, 1769. 
Pedro Fages, July, 1770. 
Fernando Rivera y Moncada, 

May 25, 1774. 
Felipe de Neve, Feb. 3, 1777. 
Pedro Fages, Sept. 10, 1782. 
Jos^ Romeu, April 16, 1791. 
Jose Arrillaga, April 9, 1792. 
Diego de Borica, May 14, 1794. 
Jos^ Arrillaga, Jan. 16, 1800. 
Jose Arguello, July 24, 18 14. 
Pablo de Sola, March 31, 181 5. 



California became province of the 
Mexican Empire, April 11, 

1622. 

Luis Arguello, Nov. 10, 1822, 
First native Governor. 



March 26, 1825, California be- 
came province of Mexican Re- 
public. 
Jose Maria Echeandia, Nov. 8, 

1825. 
Manuel Victoria, Jan. 31, 1831. 
Josd Maria Echeandia, Dec. 6, 

1831. 
Jos^ Figueroa, Jan. 15, 1833. 
Jose Castro, Sept. 29, 1835. 
Nicolas Gutierrez, Jan. 2, 1836. 
Mariano Chico, May 3, 1836. 
Nicolas Gutierrez, Sept. 6, 1836. 
Josd Castro, Nov. 5, 1836. 
Juan B. Alvarado, Dec. 7, 1836. 
Manuel Micheltorena, Dec. 31, 

1842. 
Pio Pico, Feb. 22, 1845, to Aug. 

ID, 1846, end of Mexican 

rule. 



The following were Governors 

under Military Rule, U.S.A. 

John D. Sloat, July 7, 1846. 

Robert F. Stockton, July 29, 1846. 

John C. Fremont, Military Gov- 
ernor, Jan. 19, 1847, for 50 days. 

Stephen W. Kearny, Military Gov- 
ernor, March to May 31, 1847. 

R. B. Mason, Military Governor, 
May 31, 1847. 

Persifer F. Smith, Military Gov- 
ernor, Feb. 28, 1849. 

Bennet Riley, April 12, 1849. 



Peter H. Burnett, Dec. 20, 1849, 
First State Governor, Demo- 
cratic, received 6716 votes, total 
vote, 12,064. 

John McDougall, Lieutenant Gov- 
ernor, became Governor Jan. 9, 
185 1, Democrat. 

John Bigler, Jan. 8, 1852, Demo- 
crat. 

John Bigler, Jan. 7, 1854, Demo- 
crat. 

John Neely Johnson, Jan. 9, 
1856, American Party. 

John B. Weller, Jan. 8, 1858, 
Democrat. 

Milton S. Latham, Jan. 9, i860. 
Democrat. 

John G. Downey (Lieutenant 
Governor), inaugurated Jan. 
14, i860, Democrat. 

Leland Stanford. Jan. 10, 1862, 
Republican. 

Frederick F. Low, Dec. 10, 1863, 
Union Party. 



LIST OF GOVERNORS 



293 



Henry H. Haight, Dec. 5, 1867, 

Democrat. 
Newton Booth, Dec. 8, 1871, Re- 
publican. 
Romualdo Pacheco (Lieutenant 

Governor), inaugurated Feb. 

27, 1875, Republican (native 

state Governor). 
William Irwin, Dec. 9, 1875, 

Democrat. 
Geo. C. Perkins, Jan. 8, 1880, 

Republican. 
Geo. Stoneman, Jan. 10, 1883, 

Democrat. 



Washington Bartlett, Jan. 8, 

1887, Democrat. 
Robert W. Waterman (Lieutenant 

Governor), inaugurated Sept. 

13, 1887, Republican. 
H. H. Markham, Jan. 8, 1891, 

Republican. 
James H. Budd, Jan. 11, 1895, 

Democrat. 
Henry T. Gage, Jan. 4, 1899, 

Republican. 
Geo. C. Pardee, Jan. 7, 1903, 

Republican. 
James N. Gillett, Jan. 9, 1907, 

Republican. 



ELECTORAL VOTE. 



1852, Pierce and King, Demo- 
cratic, 4 electoral votes. 

1856, Buchanan and Brecken- 
ridge. Democratic, 4 electoral 
votes. 

i860. Lincoln and Hamlin, Re- 
publican, 4 electoral votes. 

1864, Lincoln and Johnson, Re- 
publican, 5 electoral votes. 

1868, Grant and Colfax, Repub- 
lican, 5 electoral votes. 

1872, Grant and Wilson, Repub- 
lican, 6 electoral votes. 

1876, Hayes and Wheeler, Re- 
publican, 6 electoral votes. 

Garfield and Arthur, Re- 
publican, I electoral vote. 

i88o^ Hancock and English, 
Democratic, 5 electoral 
votes. 



1892 



1884, Blaine and Logan, Repub- 
lican, 8 electoral votes. 
1888, Harrison and Morton, Re- 
publican, 8 electoral votes. 

Harrison and Reid, Repub- 
lican, I electoral vote. 
Cleveland and Stevenson, 

Dem.. 8 electoral votes. 
McKinley and Hobart. Re- 
publican, 8 electoral 
votes. 
Bryan and Sewell, Demo- 
cratic, People's and Silver 
parties, i electoral vote. 
1900, McKinley and Roosevelt, 

Republican, 9 electoral votes. 

1904, Roosevelt and Fairbanks, 

Republican, 9 electoral votes. 



GAL. — 19 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Bancroft — " History of California," vols. I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII. 

Bancroft — " California Pastoral." 

Bancroft — " History of North Mexican States." 

Hittell — '• History of California," vols. I, II, III, IV. 

Royce — '• History of California." 

Blackmar — " Spanish Institutions of the Southwest." 

Montalvo — " Sergas of Esplandian." Translator, E. E. Hale, 
Atlantic Monthly, vol. XIII, p. 265. 

Vancouver — •' Voyage of Discovery to the Pacific Ocean," vol. III. 

Gcronimo Boscano — " Chinigchinich." "History of Mission In- 
dians." Translator, Alfred Robinson — " Life in California.'" 

PVancisco Palou — '' Life of Fray Junipero Serra." 

Junipero Serra — " Diary." Translated in magazine Out West, 
March-July, 1902. 

Hakluyt — " Drake's Voyages." 

Vanegas — " History of California." 

Davis — " Sixty Years in California." 

Colton — " Three Years in California." 

Fremont — " Memoirs." 

Sherman — " Memoirs." 

Century Magazine^ vols. 41-42. 

Stoddard — " In the Footsteps of the Padres." 

Lummis — - The Right Hand of the Continent." Series, Out West 
Magazine, 1903. 

Lummis — " Spanish Pioneers." 
Jackson — "A Century of Dishonor." 
Jackson — " Ramona." 

California Book of Louisiana Purchase Exposition. 

294 



INDEX 

AND PRONOUNCING VOCABULARY* 

KEY. — Vowels: a in late, a in fat, ii in far, a in last; e in me, 
e in met, berry, e in veil, e in term ; i in fine, i in tin, i in police; 
o in note, 6 in not, o in do; 5 in tune, u in nut, ii in rude (= o) ; 
y in my, y in hymn. Consonants : q in ^ent, machine, t^ in can ; 
g, in gem, g in get ; § = z. Italic letters are silent. 



Ab-ii-ld'ne, 22. 

A-eu-pul'co, 68. 

Admission to the Union, 179-182. 

A-du'be, 93. 

A-hi-me'da, 182. 

A-his'kA, 214. 

Al'ba, 110. 

Al-ciil'de, 104, 108, 173, 174. 

Alfalfa, 244. 

Al-fi-le-ri'a, 209. 

Al'ta, 86. 

Al-vii-ra'do, 125, 133, 134, 136. 

American government of Califor- 
nia, 173-179. 

American River, 150. 

Americans in California, 129, 134, 
140-146, 149. 

A'na-heim, settled, 212. 

A'ni-an, Strait of, 53, 62. 

Apricots, 256. 

Area, 289. 

Argnello (ar-gwal'yo), Captain 
Lu'is, 128, 131, 132. 

Arguello family, 145. 



Ar-ro'yo Se'co, 97, 146. 

As-gen-si-on', Padre, 8, 670. 

A-to'le, 94. 

Av'ji-lon, 68. 

A-ya'Ia, Lieutenant, 88. 

Ba-M'a, 249. 

Bailey, W. F., quoted, 185. 

Bananas, 257. 

Ban'croft, quoted, 206. 

Ban-di'nT, aids Americans, 145. 

Bandini, Dona Ar-ca'di-a, quoted, 

137. 
Bandini, Mrs., makes flag, 145. 
Barley, 255. 

Bautista (bou-tes'ta), 134. 
Bear Flag Republic, 142. 
Beets, 260.. 

Bel'mont Military Academy, 287. 
Ben'i-tite, 277. 
Benton, Senator, 182, 195. 
Berke'l^y, State University at, 283. 
Bid 'well, quoted, 166. 
Bo-le'ro, 116. 



* Pronunciations are sriven approximately according^ to Webster's International 
Dictionary, except that z in Spanish names is given the sound s, accordinfr to the usage 
of the Western Hemisphere, instead of th, the Madrid or scholar's pronunciation. 

295 



296 



INDEX 



Bo-ni'to, 22. 

Borax, 276. 

British, visit California, 130. 

Bro'der-ick, David C, 190, 191. 

Buffalo Bill, 186. 

Bur' bank, Luther, 262-266. 

Bur-nett', Peter, 181. 

But^e County, oranges in, 247. 

Cable, Pacific, 225. 

Ca'bo de Pi'nos, 65. 

Cabrillo, Juan Rodriguez (hoo-an' 

ro-dre'ges ca-brtl'yo), 48-56, 

72. 
Cacafuegos (ca-ca-fwa'gos), 60. 
Cactus, 265. 
Cahuenga (ca-wen'ga), treaty of, 

146^ 148. 
Ca-la-ve'ras grove, 235. 
Cal-houn', 179. 
California, area of, 289. 
climate of, 13-18. 
geography of, 13, 14. 
name, origin of, 11, 12. 
California Column, 193. 
California Lancers, 193. 
Cal-i-for'nite, 276. 
Ca-mi'sa, 116. 
Canneries, 257, 260, 261. 
Cape Men-do-ci'no, 67. 
Capitol, 204. 
Car'me-lo River, 71, 87. 
Carmeiion (car-men-yon'), Se- 

bas-ti-an', explorations of, 67. 
Car'ne se'co, 101. 
Carquinez (car-ke'nes). Strait of, 

14. 
Car-re'ta, 116, 118, 213. 
Carrillo (car-rel'yo), in conven- 
tion, 177. 
Castillo (cas-tel'yo), Do-min'go, 

map of, 12. 
Cas'lro, General, 1.39, 140, 142. 
Cattle raising, 108, 113. 
Celery, 256. 
Central Pacific Railroad, 197-201. 



Cha'gres, Panama, 163. 
Cha-niis'so, Albert von, 132. 
Chapman, 125, 126. 
Cherries, 262. 

China, war with Japan, 223. 
Chinese, in California, 202, 203. 

work on railroad, 198. 
Chi-nig'chl-nTch, 25, 33-36, 45, 

47. 
Ch'ip'pa, 43-45. 
Cho'los, 138. 
Ci-ga-ri'tos, 109. 
Citron, 246, 256. 
Civil War, 180, 189-194. 
Clay, Henry, 178. 
Clee'ta, 19-29, 45-47. 
Climate, 13-18. 
Club wheat, 242. 
Cody, Mr., 186. 
Co-lo'mtl, mill near, 150. 
Co-lom'bi-a, and Panama Canal, 

222. 
Colony days, 211-214. 
Col'ton, Rev. Walter, 173, 174. 

quoted, 203. 
Co-man-diin'te, 136. 
Comstock mine, 271. 
Con-cep-ci-on' de Arguello, 130, 

131. 
Conquest of California, 139-146. 
Constitution of 1849, 178. 
Constitution of 1 879, 203. 
Constitutional Convention of 1849, 

177. 
Cooper, Ellwood, 262. 
Copper mining, 276. 
Corn, 244. 
Co-ro-nel', Don ig-na'ci-o, school 

of, 280. 
Cor'tez, if er-nan'do, 12, 53, 74. 
Co-to-pac'nic, 4(5. 
Counties, 290, 291. 
Cradle, used in mining, 158. 
Cres'pi, Juan, 75, 100. 
Crocker, Charles, 197-199. 
Cua-tri to (kwa-), 117. 



INDEX 



297 



Cu-chu'tna, 22, 26, 32, 35, 45. 
Cushiony scale, 250. 

Day, Sherman, 284. 

De-bris', 2(38. 

Del Valle, Reginaldo (ra-he-nal'do 

del val'ye), 288. 
Dew'ey, Commodore, m Spanish 

war, 217. 
Di-5s', 110. 
Do-lo'res mission, 88. 
Don'ner party, 167. 
Dra-gon-te'a, 57. 

Drake, Sir Francis, 57-66, 12, 73. 
Drakes Bay, 63. 
Dress of early Californians, 115, 

116. 
Dried fruits, 260. 
Drift mining, 269. 
Dul'ce, 258. 

Earthquake (1906), 225-228. 

El Ca-mi'no Re-al', 95. 

El Refugio (re-foo'he-o), 125. 

Empire mine, 274. 

England, explorations, 59-66. 

Escuela (es-kwa'la), 279. 

Explorations, 48-73, 81-83. 

Farallones (fa-ral-y5'iies), 81. 

Farmer's Institute, 285. 

Fer-re'lo, 56, 57, 65. 

Festivals, 126. 

Fi-es'ta, 126. 

Figs, 260. 

Flo'res, General, 146. 

Flour trade, 243. 

Forests, 229-236. 

Forty-niners, 156, 172. 

Fr6-mont', Captain, 139-143, 146. 

dispute witli Kearny, 148, 149. 

elected senator, 178. 

explorations, 139, 167, 195. 

on land question, 182. 
French, visit California, 129. 
Frijoles (fre-ho'les), 93. 



Fruit, 246-263. 

canned, 257, 260. 

crystallized, 261. 

dried, 260. 

preserved, 258. 
Fugitive Slave Law, 190. 

Galli (gal'ye), Fran-cis'co, 66. 
Galvez, Jcs^ de (ho-sa' da gal'- 

ves), 75-78, 84, 87. 
Gems, 276. 
Gente de razon (hen'te da ra-son'), 

124. 
Gentiles (hen-te'las), 80. 
Ges-nip', 19-33, 38-47. 
Gicamas (hi-ca'mas), 70. 
Gl-gan-te'a, 234. 
Gll-les'pie, 140, 143, 146. 
Gold, discovered, 147, 151, 155. 

early mining, 154-160. 

modern mines, 267-271, 274. 
Golden Ilind, ship, 66. 
Governors, list of, 292. 
Gra'/mm, 133, 134. 
Grain, 238-245. 
Grape fruit, 252. 
Grapes, 254, 258-260. 
Guam (gw^am), 225. 
Gwin, in convention, 177. 

senator, 178, 189, 190, 281. 

Hag?<e, 220, 221. 
Harte, Bret, 130, 200. 
Harvester, 240. 
Ha-wai'i, 218-220, 225. 
Hearst, Mrs. Phcebe, 283, 285. 
He'cox, Mrs., quoted, 171. 
Hit 'tell, quoted, 205. 
Hop'kins, Mark, 197. 
Hun'ting-ton, Collis P., 197, 198. 
Huntington, H. E., 239. 
Hydraulic mining, 100, 268, 269. 

Idf, 141. 

Immigration after 1848, 156, 161- 
172. 



298 



INDEX 



Indian Bar, 184. 

Indians, aborigines, 19-47, 54, 63, 
64. 

baskets, 43-45. 

boats, 39. 

clotliing, 21, 31, 32, 33, 43, 63. 

food, 28, 29, 38, 42, 45-47. 

houses, 26. 

hunting, 23-25, 42, 43. 

myths, 30, 45. 

worship, 33-36. 
Indians in Santa Catalina, 70. 
Indians, mission, 91-105, 127. 
Indians, on ranches, 110-112. 
Indians, recent history, 206-208. 
Irrigation, 245, 252-255. 
i-sa-do'ra, 138. 
Is'bell, Mrs. Oliver Mann, 280. 

Jacal (ha-cJil'), 26. 
Ja-pan', 223-225. 
Jes'u-its in New Spain, 76. 
Jiminez (he-me'nes), 53. 
Jones, Commodore, 136, 137. 
Jones, W. C, 182. 
Jordan, President, 287. 
Juan (hoo-iin'), 48, 51, 52, 56. 
Ju'dah, Theodore D., 196-198. 

Kah-hoom', 43-45. 

Kcar'ny, General Stephen, 145, 

148, 149. 
Kern lliver, electric power from, 

278. 
Kindergartens, 282. 
King, Thomas Starr, 192. 
KlJi'matA, 37, 38. 
Ko-re'a, 223. 
Kotzebue, Otto von (fon kot'sii- 

boo), 132. 
Kunz'ite, 276. 

Ladybird, 250. 
LaFi-es'ta, 126. 
La-gu'iia ranoho, battle of, 146. 
sheep on, 210. 



Land question, 182, 183. 

La Pe-rouje', 129. 

La Po-se-si-on', 55. 

La Pu-ri'si-ma mission, 89. 

Lar'kin, consul, 136, 137, 139, 

284. 
Le'land Stau'ford Junior Univer- 
sity, 285-287. 
Lemons, 245, 251. 
Lick Observatory, 284. 
Lol'lah, 30. 

r.opez, Juan (hoo-an' lo'pes), 147. 
Lorn^', Marquis of, quoted, 262. 
Los An'ge-les, beginnings of, 107, 
108. 

captured by Americans, 143. 

church built by Chapman, 126. 

during Civil War, 194. 

in colony days, 213. 

Kern River power, 278. 

old palms in, 144. 

State Normal School, 283. 
Lumber, 229-236. 
Lum'mis, Charles F., author, 249. 

Ma-ca'na, 22, 27, 28, 31, 32, 37, 38, 

41, 42, 44, 46. 
Ma-cha'do, A-gus-tin', 122. 
McKin'ley, President, 218, 220. 
Ma-es'tro, 113. 

Ma-han', Captain, quoted, 220. 
Mii'la-ga, 266. 
Man-chu'ri-a, 223. 
Mandarin orange, 248. 
Ma-nil'a, cable to, 225. 

trade, 67, 74, 77. 
Manila Bay, battle, 217. 
Ma-rin' County, 226. 
Mar-i-po'sa grove, 234. 
Mar'shall, James, 150-153. \ 
Mason, Colonel, 149, 154. 
Ma-ydr' dd'mo, 110. 
Men-do-ci'no, Cape, 67. 
Men-do'za, 72. 
Mer-ced' River, 160. 
Me-ta'te, 111. 



INDEX 



299 



Mexican government of California, 

124. 
Mexico, dispute over Fius Fund, 
221. 

revolt against Spain, 122, 124. 

war with the United States, 
134-135, 140, 174. 
Mi-chel-to-re'na, Governor, 137. 
Mil-lay', 43. 
Mills College, 287. 
Mines, modern, 267-277. 
Missions, 70-105. 

aid government, 123. 

irrigation, 252. 

orchards, 257, 258. 

schools at, 279. 

secularized, 103-105, 126. 

wheat raising, 237-239. 
Mo 'docs, 208. 

M6n-te-rey', attacked by pirate, 
125. 

captured by Jones, 136, 137. 

captured by Sloat, 143. 

mission founded at, 85. 

presidio of, 87. 
Monterey Bay, discovered, 55, 71. 

PortoLi at, 81. 
Mountains, 13-10. 
Mu-cha'chas, 110, 112. 
Mu-cha'chos, 110. 
Murphy, Virginia Reed, quoted, 

108. 
Muscat grape, 258. 
Mussel Slough District, 201. 

Na-hjil', 31. 

Na-kin', 29, 47. 

Native Sons of the Golden West, 

205. 
Navel orange, 248-250. 
Ne-va'da City, 274. 
Ne've, 'Fe-li'pe de, 107. 
New Al'bi-on, 04. 
New Al-nni-den , quicksilver mines, 

276. 
Ni'hie, 35, 36. 



No-fence law, 211. 
No-pal', 29, 32-36, 40, 41, 43. 
Normal schools, 283. 
^^uts, 257, 261, 262. 

Oats, 255. 
Ojai (o'hi),287. 
Olives, 246, 255, 261. 
OUas (ol'yas), 22, 26, 35. 
Oranges, 246-254. 
Oregon, voyage of the, 216, 217. 
Oregon Country, 135. 
Or-te'ga, discovers San Francisco 
bay, 82, 83. 
rancho attacked, 125. 
Otter hunting, 132, 133. 
Outdoor life, 17, 18. 
Outlaws, 214. 

Pa-che'co, Governor, 205. 

Pacific cable, 225. 

Pacific Ocean, importance of, 13, 

217. 
Pa'dres, 51. Sec Missions. 
Pa'la, chapel, 89. 

Pa'lon, Fran-cis'co, 75, 79, 88, 100. 
Pan-a-ma' Canal, 221. 
Pa-no'cha, 120. 

Pa'pas pequeiios (pa-kan'yos), 70. 
Pas-a-de'na, settled, 212. 
Pas-to-rel', 97. 
Pa'ti-o, 94. 
Pa-tron', 111. 
Pa-tro'na, 110, 112. 
Pa-yu'chi, 25-47. 
Pe'pe, 49, 50. 
Pe'sos, 60. 
Petroleum, 276. 
Pey'ri, 95, 96. 

Phll'ip-pinc trade, 58, 71-73, 261. 
Philippines, 217, 218. 
Pi'co, General An-dres', 145, 146, 

148. 
Pi'nos, Point, 55, 71, 80, 81. 
Pius Fund, 70, 220. 
Pla9'er mines, 147, 158, 268. 



300 



indp:x 



ria'za, 107. 

Pocket, in placer mining, 160. 

Po-ma'to, 265. 

P6m'e-lo, 252. 

Pony express, 185-188. 

Port Cos'ta, wheat grader at, 243. 

Por-to-lJi', Captain, 77-80, 83-85. 

Prairie scliooner, 170. 

Preserved fruit, 258. 

Pre-si'di-os, 85, 108. 

Prunes, 2(52, 266. 

Pueblos (pweb'los), 106-108. 

Pumpkin, preserved, 258. 

Quartz mining, 270. 
Quicksilver, 276. 

Railroad, 196-201, 205, 206. 
Rainfall, 14, 16. 
Raisins, 256, 258-260. 
Ra-mi'rez (-res), 177. 
Ranch life, 109-127. 
Ran-che'ros, 121, 122, 183. 
Ranches, modern, 262. 
Ran'chos, 109. 
Re-bo'sa, 116. 
Re'ye.s, Point, 67, 81-83. 
Re-za'nof, Count, 130, 131. 
Rhubarb, 265. 
Ri'ley, Governor, 176. 
Riv'er-side, founded, 212. 

oranges at, 247, 249, 250. 
Rob'in-son, Alfred, quoted, 257. 
Ro-de'o, 113, 114. 
Roo'se-velt, 222, 224, 225. 
Ross, Fort, 131 , 1.33. 
Routes to California, 161-172. 
Ru'rik, ship, 132. 
Russia, sells Alaska, 215. 

war with Japan, 224. 
Russians in California, 131-133. 

Sac-ra-men'to, foiuided, 133. 

pony express at, 186. 

railroad begun, 198. 
Sacramento valley, 239, 269. 



St. John de An-ton', 61. 

St. Michael orange, 248. 

Sal, Point, 130. 

Sa-li'nas River, 139. 

San A-gus-tin', 67. 

San An-to'ni-o mission, 87. 

San Antonio, ship, 79, 83-85. 

San Be-ni'to County, benitite in, 

277. 
San Ber-nar-di'no County, gems 

in, 276. 
San Bru'no, 182. 

San Buenaventura (bwa-na-ven- 
too'ra) mission, 89, 99. 

fruit trees, 246, 257. 
San Car'los, ship, 79, 88, 237. 
San Car'lds de Bor-ro-me'o mis- 
sion, 85, 86, 100, 129. 
San Di-e'go, captured by Ameri- 
cans, 143-146. 
San Diego Bay, discovered, 50, 

68. 
San Diego mission, 80, 92. 

fruit trees, 246. 

Indian revolt, 102. 

wheat, 237. 
San Diego presidio, 108. 
San Diego, ship, 68. 
San Fer-nan'do mines, 148. 
San Fernando mission, 89, 99. 

brandy, 257. 

fruit trees, 246. 
San Fran-cTs'co, city named, 153. 

disorder in (Vigilantes), 184. 

during Civil War, 192, 193. 

earthquake and fire, 226-228. 

gold excitement, 153, 154. 

growth after 1848, 156. 

in war of 1898, 218. 

kindergartens, 282. 

pony express at, 186. 

Sutro baths, etc., 273, 274. 
San Francisco Bay, discovered, 83, 

87, 88. 
San Francisco mission, 87, 88. 
San Francisco presidio, 108. 



INDEX 



301 



San Ga'bri-el mission, 87, 1)6. 
Chapman at, 126, 126. 
mill at, 239. 
orchards, 246, 257. 
wheat, 237. 
San Gabriel River, battle of, 146. 
San Joaquin (wa-ken') Valley, 

239, 247, 269. 
San Jose (ho-sa'), beginnings of, 
107. 
earlj'^ school at, 280. 
earthquake, 226. 
San Jos6 mission, 89, 121. 

Indian revolt, 102. 
San Jos^, ship, 83. ^ 

San Juan Bautista (hoo-an' bou- 

tes'ta) mission, 89. 
San Juan (hoo-an') Ca-pis-tra'no 
mission, 89, 96. 
attacked by pirate, 125. 
San Lu'is 0-bis'po mission, 87. 
San Luis Obispo Polytechnic 

School, 282. 
San Lu'Ts Rey mission, 89, 95. 
San Ma-te'o, 182. 
San Mi-pwel', Cabrillo at, 50, 55- 

57. 
San Miguel mission, 89, 123. 
San Pas-qual', battle, 145, 146. 
San Pe'dro, Bay of, discovered, 54, 

71. 
San Ra-fa-el' mission, 89. 
San Sal-va-dor', 53. 
San To-mas', ship, 68, 71, 72. 
San'chez (-ches), Padre, 246. 
Sanitary Commission, 192. 
San'ta Bar'ba-ra mission, 89. 

fruit trees, 246. 
Santa Barbara presidio, 108. 
San'ta Ca-ta-li'na, 22. 

discovered, 53, 68. 
San'ta Cla'ra College, 288. 
Santa Clara mission, 89. 
Indian revolt, 102. 
orchards, 257. 
school at, 280. 



San'ta Cruz (kroos) , town founded, 

107. 
Santa Cruz mission, 89. 
San'ta Fe, 78. 
San'ta Inez (e-nes') mission, 89. 

fruit trees, 246. 
San'ta Ro'sfi, 226, 264, 266. 
Sa^n'ders, and navel oranges, 249. 
Scale, orange, 250, 251. 
School taxes, 282. 
Schools, early, 113, 279-281. 

modern, 281-288. 
Sem-per-vl'rens, 230, 234. 
Seiior (sen-yor'), 56, 133. 
Seiiora (sen-yo'ra), 213. 
Senorifa (sen-yo-re'ta), 213. 
Se-quoi'as, 230-235. 
Se-quoy'a League, 208. 
Ser'ra, Junipero (hoo-ni'pa-ro), 

75-80, 83-88, 102. 
death of, 100. 
work of, 91, 92. 
Sew'ard, 179, 214, 215. 
Shas'ta, oranges in, 247. 
Shasta, Mount, 275, 
Sheep industry, 209-211. 
Sherman, Wm. T., 149, 151, 154. 
"Shirley," quoted, 184. 
Sho'loc, 22-32, 35, 36, 39, 46, 47. 
Shu'meh, 31. 
Si-er'ra Ne-va'da, 14, 16, 56, 160, 

232. 
Slavery struggle, 175-179, 190. 
Sloat, Commodore, 142, 143. 
Soil, 16, 18. 
S6-la'no mission, 89. 
So-le-dad' mission, 89. 
Som-bre'ro, 111. 
So-no'ma, captured, 141. 
South Sea, 53. 

Southern Pacific Railroad, 201, 206. 
Spain, colonies, 75, 77. 
explorations, 48-57, 66-73, 81- 

83. 
revolt against, 122, 124. 
trade laws, 119-122. 



302 



INDEX 



Spanish government of California, 
77, 122. 

Spanish- American War, 215-219. 

Stampede of 1849, 161. 

Stan'ford, Le'land, gifts for educa- 
tion, 283, 286. 
governor, 193. 
railroad work, 197-200. 

Stanford, Mrs. Leland, 283, 280. 

Stanford, Thomas Weldon, 287. 

Stanford University, 285-287. 

Steamboat, first in California, 155. 

Stearns, Don A-bel', 137, 147, 148. 

Stock raising, 108, 113. 

Stock'ton, Commodore, 143, 140, 
148. 

Stockton, grain center, 242. 

Sugar, 260. 

Sul-ta'na grape, 239. 

Su'tro, A'dolph, 271-274. 

Sutro baths, 273, 274. 

Sut'ter, Captain John, 133, 150- 
152. 

Sutter's Fort, 133. 

Sutter's mill, 150, 153. 

Ta-mii'les, 209. 

Tan'ger-ine orange, 248. 

Telegraph, 195. 

Texas, 134, 135. 

Thatcher School, 287. 

Throop Polytechnic School, 287. 

Tibbetts, Mrs., and navel oranges, 

249. 
Ti'tas, 45. 
To-mii'les, 226. 

Tortilla (tor-tel'ya), 93, 111, 244. 
Trade, early, 119-122. 
Tres Ite yes, ship, 68, 82, 83. 
Trist, 175. 
Tsu'wish, 43, 45. 
Tuc-son', 206. 
Tu-la're County, products, 247, 

276. 



Tu'les, 30, 31, 35, 39, 40. 
'I'uol'um-ne grove, 234. 

Union Pacific Kailroad, 197-201. 
United States, conquers Califor- 
nia, 134-146. 
University of California, 283-285. 

Valencia late orange, 248. 
Vallejo (val-ya'ho). General, 125. 

captured, 141. 

in convention, 177. 

loses land, 183. 

quoted, 113, 148. 
Vallejo, Senorita Guadalupe (sen- 
yo-re'ta gwa-da-lu'pe), quoted, 
118, 121, 183, 257. 
Van-cou'ver, Captain, 130. 

quoted, 257. 
Vanquech (van'kesh), 35. 
Vaquero (va-ka'ro), 111. 
Vasquez (vas'kes), 214. 
Vegetables, 256, 257, 261. 
Ven-tu'ra, Cabrillo at, 54. 
Ve'ra Cruz (kroos), 74, 75. 
Vig-i-lan'tes, 184, 185. 
Vizcaino (ves-ka-e'no), Don Se- 
bas-ti-an', explorations of, 
68-73. 

Wash-day expedition, 118. 
Webster, Daniel, 176, 179. 
Westminster, settled, 212. 
Wheat, 237-245, 255. 
Wheeler, Benjamin Ide, 284. 
White, Stephen M., 288. 
Whitman, Walt, quoted, 219. 
Wiggin, Kate Douglas, 282. 
Wiiley, Kev. Samuel, 284. 
Wolfskin grove, 246. 

Yer'ba Buena (bwa'na), 152. 
Yo-sem'i-te, 233. 

Zanja (san'ha), 94. 



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